SIGNAL: The Reaper, The Beast, and The Brawler
by YautjaOfEarth
Summary: RWBY AU(Set in Patch before the events of RWBY): Aurum Khan is a halfbreed Tiger Faunus with a shattered memory, due to the violence of humans, and dreams of being a Huntsman, attends the Huntsman Training School of Signal. After his cover was blown by a familiar looking girl in red, Aurum must survive the human dominated school as the only Faunus in his grade.(Lycan fic)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello Oomans**

 **I'm Back with a new story and new chapters to my other stories**

 **Im sorry that I haven't been posting a lot recently, its been difficult to do so when you have this steaming pile of ideas your sitting on, as well as the thought of no one really posting any post RWBY stories, (im sure that the RWBY creators had a rich history of the Ruby and Yang's previous school Signal on the Island of Patch ready) and thinking about what the school would be like what honestly eating away at me, then the Ideas started flowing and now you have this steaming pile here.**

 **Honestly im not sure whether this story will do me any favors, im just writing it to get it out of my head, but I hope that you all like it in the process. So lets do this**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome to Signal**

Aurum Khan could barely contain his composure, as he walked down the street. The morning air filled his nose as he made his way to what looked to be his destination on the directions of his scroll. The sun wasn't up yet, but its rays of light shone over the horizon of trees, houses, and buildings, giving the area a look of sleepy peace. Many people probably were still trying to rub the sleep from their eyes, and those who were up and about he could see beginning to stir. Those who were already up drove by the sidewalk he trekked, on the smoothly paved streets.

" _Should be a turn left right up here,"_ the 15 year old thought to himself as he walked. It was a brand new school year starting officially in three days, making him both nervous and excited.

He was excited because his career as a Huntsman started today. He had been accepted (unofficially) into Signal Academy, a school to teach the next generation of Huntsman and Huntresses. When Aurum had told his mother and older brother of his dream of becoming a Huntsman, he thought they would be skeptical, or against the idea. Then again seeing how they were Huntsman themselves, Freelancers none the less, they fully supported his dream.

Aurum grinned to himself. Freelancers. If Huntsman were the infantry, Freelancers were Spec Ops. Aurum grinning inwardly, he mentally high fived himself for the unintentional referecnce to the video game Call of Duty. Freelancers were a different story than regular hunters. They were able to travel to different continents, different Kingdoms, answering the call of duty. He high fived himself again as he pushed the button at a crosswalk. He hoped to become like them, he wanted to be like his mom, and his older brother, Garrett. Garrett wasn't his brother by blood, in fact he was human, but even so he was also his mom's best friend. When she got pregnant with him, and his father died, Garrett helped raise Aurum, but refused to be called the boy's father by anyone. Aurum had never known the actual reason as to why that was, but Garrett would always tousle the boys hair, and joked "I might die of laughter trying to explain that one to somebody,"

Thinking on that comment Aurum realized the other side to this double edged sword; the nervousness of the situation. He wasn't nervous about how much work would be in training, (in fact he was doing fairly well with the rigorously painful training his mother and Garrett were putting him through), but who he was going to be training with. Humans were never the best at talking to him, and it seemed that they had never heard of the words subtle, and discreet. Glares of disgust and stares of curiosity alike seemed to always be in his direction, and wandering hands would try to touch what he could not stress enough to the humans were off limits. Passing a small building with mirror like glass for walls, he gave himself a once over in one of the mirrors. Now that he truly thought about it he could see why he got so many stares throughout his life. For a 15 year old he was of a slightly above average height, around 5'8. He saw one of the reasons that he was stared at a lot by humans. Make that two reasons to be precise. A head of long white hair grew from his head to the back of his neck. And from that hair, two white tiger ears stuck out near the top of his head. The Tiger ears had rich black stripes of fur, which seemed to run down his hair in various directions. Aurum wiggled them and twitced them back and forth like sonars, listening to the purr of vehicles getting closer and farther away. His second pair of ears, his _human_ ears were small and usually hid behind his locks of white and black. Two metal earrings that started as metal in his earlobes, became two thickly woven braids that trailed down to about an inch or two above his collar bone. Each one had a few small feathers woven into the braids, and ended with three black beads between the tightly woven and the tufts at the ends. His mother was very proud of their Faunus heritage. He for one wished that he had her bravery in that department.

He moved on from his ears and his gaze trailing down past the strands in his face, and past two cerulean blue pools. He then focused on what usually made people so wary of him. His smile. Pulling his lips back and opening his mouth he saw them. Two rows of pearly whites and a fanged smile. He mindlessly ran his tongue across his pointed edges. One of the many reasons that humans were infatuated with and at the same time feared him. He made a mental agreement with himself to not give open lipped smiles for the exams today.

Using his perifreial vision Aurum noticed two pedestrians cross the street to where he was standing. One of them looked on at him with an small smile. Then shook the other to get his attention. When the taller pedestrian noticed him as they passed, Aurum turned slightly, smiled and waved. When he realized that his promise that he just made himself was broken he quickly covered his teeth with his lips, but realized it was too late when the taller of the two quickly and gently ushered the other away and around the corner out of sight.

What had he done wrong? He thought what he was wearing wouldn't put any one off. It wasn't the day that he would meet other students, but he want to make sure the exam teachers had the best opinions about him.

He was wearing his favorite pants, baggy white cargo pants with a bandana hanging from the back pocket, his black combat boots, a black long sleeved shirt long sleeved shirt, fingerless black gloves that had a hard padding on the knuckles. And he also was wearing his favorite coat, a black sleeveless long coat with a white trim. The coat had a hood that protruded into a tip like a eagle beak that concealed the top half of his face in shadow when he put it on. The coat separated into two halves just at the bend of his knees, but the coat tails stopped somewhere around his calfs. His mother would always say he looked like a character from the popular video game series "Creed of Assassins", and he would break into a big grin and explain that the look was exactly what he was going for.

Aurum finally realized what was wrong when he noticed the white tiger tail that hung loosly behind him was swaying lazily back and forth. Grabbing the tail to stop its movement, a pang of fear and nervousness shot through him. It occoured to him that he would be attending a school maily comprised of humans, and possibly very little faunus. The thing about humans were that they were so quick to judge faunus, and yet at the same time so quick to try and touch what he specifically declared off limits zones. He would be a sitting duck there. Not just from being a faunus, but because he would be susceptible to the harsh grips and rubs and degrading pets and pats of the humans who both adored and feared his faunus appendages. Humans had no self control sometimes and would not relent when he told them what they were doing hurt him. His mini panic attack was brought to a halt when he remembered that he could always just hide the appendages.

Yes, that's perfect! He and his mother hid their faunus appendages almost every year. It was sort of a ritual at the beginning of the year when she would ask him "So? Tuck or not?" It almost always didn't work due to accidental carelessness of himself, or the carelessness of others, it usually became apparent of what he was because someone took something to far or he pushed himself to hard. This year would be different. He could always go to the bathroom for a break between periods when his tail and ears got sore. Aurum figured it would be better for them not to know he was a faunus. Humans always seemed to work better with other humans anyway.

Well if it was human they wanted, it was human he could give them.

'I guess I'm back to Tucking again," Aurum thought to himself.

He grabbed the base of his tail and threaded it around his waist, resembling a furry belt. Not the most attractive fashion style so he stuffed it underneath his shirt. For his ears he flattened them, grabbed the bandana from his pocket and tied it around his head and flattened ears, and then pulled the hood over his head, enshrouding his eyes and top of his head in darkness. "Ta-da!," Aurum thought to himself. "Normal Human,"

The ironic thing was that the man who said "Don't judge a book by its cover" was a human. He thought to himself, chuckling as he continued to walk towards his destination.

As he made his way down the street, getting closer to his destination, his ears twitched under his hood at a muffled buzzing noise behind him, growing louder by the second. He turned slightly to see a large flash of yellow, zoom by his field of vision. A motorcycle. A sleek looking motor cycle. With a body paint of glossy yellow, and a tint of shiny metallic black. A red light caused the cycle to come to a fast stop, jerking the cyclist forward a little as the motorcycle burned rubber trying to abruptly stop alongside another vehicle, the only other vehicle on the street at that time. Aurum couldn't help but admire the paint job and smile, noticing the cycle's name on the tail next to the rider's hip. He had a love for motorcycles, and always wanted one like his Garrett's, but he wasn't old enough to have a motorcycle license yet and his mother had also told him he had to learn how to drive a car first, and that his first vehicle would in fact be a car – no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Aurum noticed that there was some scribbling on the back of the cycle. Aurum had to lean back a little to read the name of the cycle, and nodded to himself as he saw that the cyclist gave the ride a fitting name. 'BUMBLEBEE' it said in a cursive like writing on the tail.

Aurum was pulled from his thoughts when he two loud revs of the cycle made him jump a little. He was so focused on the cycle that he wasn't focused on the cyclist, who through a yellow helmet was staring looking in his direction. The cyclist was dressed in a fashion that matched the cycle. A black leather jacket with a yellow shirt underneath, with black pants and shiny black heeled boots – wait… shiny black heeled boots? Aurum did a quick look over the cyclist, who now that he thought about it had the figure of a woman. He should have guessed that since the yellow shirt had two large lumps that were tightly secure inside the shirt. The cyclist also had long blond hair that her helmet couldn't seem to contain all together, flowing down her back and stopping at the dip in her back as she leaned forward on the cycle. The way she was positioned on the cycle made her butt more prominent, and tight against her pants.

Aurum realized that due to the position she was in to ride her motorcycle, and the location of which the name was, he could only assume the cyclist thought he was being pervy. He couldn't tell since the visior on her helmet was reflective, but he was sure he could see two red eyes glaring at him past the reflective glass.

And she was still staring.

Aurum felt his face start to get warm as he realized what he looked like he was doing. He then started to sputter and apologize as best he could to the girl, who probably couldn't hear him over the noise of the motorcycle and the muffling of the helmet. "OH! OOOOOH! Nonononononono! I wasn't trying t- I'm not a- Look I'm sorry- I- Look-"he stammered, his cheeks heating up, to the girl waving his hands and pointing to the motorcycle. In response, all he from the girl was a cocked head in question to what he was going on about. The faint red eyes out of the visor narrowed in disbelief to what she could possibly be hearing. Aurum tried to compose himself over the incident and took a deep breath, though he was not without fighting skills, excellent fighting skills, he was almost certain, that the way the girl looked and what he gathered, was that she could put someone in the hospital without a second thought. then he pointed at her motorcycle (making sure to make sure she knew he was pointing at her motorcycle), trying to avoid her glare of malice, then he made a what he hope she thought was a bumblebee with his hands, then gave her a thumbs up. One of the red eyes behind the visor narrowed and the other went wide, as if to raise an eyebrow. Aurum pointed to the back of her motorcycle, causing her to look behind her in the direction of her butt. He was pretty sure she still didn't get the message because her head snapped back towards his direction, the red eyes glowing brighter than before. "Nonononononono!" He exclaimed waving pleading hands infront of his body back and forth, as she put a heeled boot on the ground, as if she was going to come acrossed the grassy barrier, the only thing separating the street, her motorcycle and herself, from him, his sidewalk, and his life. He pointed farther back "Bumblebee!" He exclaimed, pleading to Oum that she could understand what he was saying. "BUMBLEBEE!" The girl eyes, narrowed once more, though not dimming, as she angled her had back to see what he was pointing at once more, but her foot remained on the ground, and her head was turned so she could keep an eye on him. When she finally looked back completely she began to convulse. Aurum would be lying if he said it didn't freak him out for a second, but the girl hit her helmeted forehead with the palm of her hand as if to say "Obviously!" and started to convulse again, shaking her head back and forth. It took a while for Aurum to figure out that she was laughing. He awkwardly smiled and began to nervously laugh himself.

Escaping sudden death, or so he thought. He really got scared when the girl actually got off her motorcycle and started to walk towards him. The barrier of grass was compromised, and Aurum was starting to fear for his life. While strength was a power he possessed, no thought of using it came to mind as the girl began to close the distance with a confident stride. He began to take steps back until the grass on the other side of the side walk decided to become an actual barrier and tripped him. His hood fell off of his head, still covering his ears but revealing his face to her. She cocked her head a little to get a better view of his face but kept coming for him. The helmet making her seem ominous and even more frightening than she really was.

At this, and much to his horror, the girl moved quicker at the sight of seeing him fall. He wouldn't be so scared if he could tell what was going on behind that helmet. But right now he felt like crying. Curling into somewhat of a ball, his arms out ready to take the barrage and shield his face. he shut his eyes and waited for the worse.

But it never came.

He cracked an eye open to see a black gloved hand reaching out for his waiting for him to take it. He stared at the hand for a moment. The girl must've grew impatient with him because using the back of her hand, she gently knocked the back of her hand against his arm, then went back to the "help you up" position. Aurum was a little skeptical but didn't want to make the girl angry again, so he timidly and hesitantly took her hand. With power he had not expected out of what he assumed was a beautiful girl, the cyclist took him by the wrist and pulled, lifting him completely off the ground before she set him back down on his feet. Putting her arm around him, Aurum and the mysterious girl made the small trek of a few steps back to the sidewalk. Her head was moving as if saying something, and she was looking at him as if addressing him, but due to the noise of the cycle, the fact that his ears when flat against his head slightly muffled sound even more, and the fact that she was still wearing a helmet, all he could hear was muffled mumbles that he could only hope he was right when he said they sounded cheerful. Then he felt something bump his arm. He looked down, (careful to avoid looking at the large… assets she had, since he was a little taller, and was pretty sure he could see down her shirt, but he wouldn't dare see if he was right) to see a fist.

All Aurum could do was stare at the fist puzzled. He was honestly puzzled at what to do at this time. He got his answer when the fist shook slightly as if waiting for a fist bump. He looked at the girls visor, it was still creepy that he couldn't see any emotion but a friend is a friend he supposed. He bumped fists with the girl, who made her fist do an explosion motion.

If Aurum wasn't still recovering from his shock and fear, he would have rolled his eyes and laughed at how childish this girl was, but all he could do was give an awkward small smile. The girl nodded, got back on her cycle, and gave him a two fingered salute before burning rubber and speeding away around the buildings a few blocks ahead. Aurum sighed in relief. He thought he was going to die right then. Just for looking at a cycle name. She thought he was looking at her butt! Ha! Like he would do that! Well… maybe he may have glanced at it once or twice, maybe for a couple seconds… Ok he was looking at her butt, but the Cycle's name was his main priority then. But he would also be lying if he said that the girl didn't have it going on! I mean she was really hot! At least by appearances, he couldn't tell what her face looked like but he could guess that she was very pretty…

Oum decided to get him for thinking like that towards his creations because Aurum was too engrossed in thought to hear the rapid noise of boots hitting pavement. It wasn't until they were too close that Aurum heard the footsteps and by then it was already too late. In a second, Aurum was slammed into by an unknown force, causing him to be clipped off the ground, twirled in the air twice, and then landing on his back with a sickening thud. Aurum roared in pain, clutching his at his waist, but It wasn't really his back that had been injured, but his tail. Realizing what he just did he clamped his hand over his mouth, and quickly looked around. It was early in the morning, so not many people were out thankfully. He whipped his head around trying to figure out what had caused him to hurt himself. Looking left and right in the middle of the street, he could find no one. Nothing was out of the ordinary besides a few cars that lay dormant on the street sides in front of buildings. The only thing out of the ordinary, was a trail of rose petals that fell slowly into his field of vision and onto him, then dissipated into nothing, as soon as they made contact with the ground. The blur of red and rose petals zipped by him and turned right behind the same building that the cyclist girl turned.

Aurum started to question this, rubbing his eyes as to register what just happened, but his pondering was cut short as a street clock rang, causing him to look at his scroll for the time. 7:15! He was supposed to be at the school by 7:45. With a pained grunt he forced himself up and began to walk to the tram station at the end of the street.

Aurum liked Trams, they were cool , mainly because they seemed to levitate off the ground. A black metal bar that hummed with electricity was put in a trench where the tram would go, and the floating vehicle had no problems with added, weight as kept still not teetering or anything! It was like a newer model of those… what were they called… back then… they were underground and had the same basic design… there was a restaurant named after them… He shrugged to himself and proceeded to board the tram.

As he boarded he saw something that found very peculiar. When the double doors slid open on the trams side, he went to find somewhere to sit, but found that everyone was standing and sitting away from the door. There was also padding lining the wall and floor on the far side of the tram where one would enter on the other side. Aurum had no idea why everyone was doing this, and since he was still eager to be on time to this new school, just reached up to grab a handle and waited. After a few minutes he could hear muffled murmurs behind him causing him to turn. He saw people staring at him as if he had a death wish. Some smirking and some taking out their scrolls to take pictures and video. Reading their lips due his muffled ears only picking up the base of their voices.

"Is he crazy?"

"This must be his first time here."

"This guy is a dead man."

"Let's post this on Youbook!"

An elderly human woman in a tracksuit smiled warmly at him. "I see you're going to the Huntsman School, Signal?" he read off her lips as she gestured to the symbol of the pamphlet he had been holding this whole time.

Aurum looked down at the symbol, and ran his fingers along the seal; a sword facing upwards with a shine on the blade, and a pistol on top of the sword as if it had just spent all the bullets in the magazine. Signal, the school for Hunters. Aurum smiled with pride and turned to the elder woman.

"Yes ma'am, Today is Examination day for first years." He replied politely to the woman. His mother and older brother had raised him to be polite to everyone, including Die-hards. Unless they didn't respond the same way, then he could tell them off.

"That means that you're a boy who is vigilant?"

"Yes ma'am," he smiled back at her.

"Can you keep a cool head?" she asked again warmly.

Aurum shrugged, he didn't like to brag, but he saw himself that way.

"I guess so ma'am," he said, with a little bit of skepticism in his voice. Where was this old lady going with this.

"So your prepared for anything?" the old woman asked. The way she was facing him Aurum couldn't tell if she was looking at him or past him. He turned and saw nothing but he could sworn he hear the pitter patter off boots getting closer. But not wanting to keep the elderly woman waiting he turned back to her again and said. "I would suppose so ma'am why do you ask?"

The old lady just smiled and replied looking at her watch, "We'll see if your words hold true, actually in 3…2…1."

The clock struck 7:21, Aurum got in to a readied stance, letting go of the overhead bar, whipping his head left and right , his eyes darting back and forth round the tram, trying to pick out or spot this "test" before it could get the better of him.

A minute went by of baited silence that was all throughout the tram car, save for the shuffling of nervous passengers, who also awaited the elderly woman's trial.

"Hmmm, a few seconds late today…" the old one mumbled to herself still looking at her watch.

Aurum then let out the remaining breath he had be holding in and relaxed then turned to the elderly lady just as the doors began to close.

"Umm, no offense ma'am," Aurum began to the old woman, who's warm smile never faltered.

"but it looks like your test is-"

Aurum had never saw it coming. He had let his guard down completely, paying no mind to a quick flash of red coming towards the tram car. Just before the doors could close a flash of red flew into the car.

Then he blinked.

In that split second of darkness, Aurum had never been more confused and startled before. Wind from outside whipped against his clothes and face, then he heard a loud noise as if someone had ran full force into something sturdy.

 **SLAM!**

The noise caused Aurum's eyelids to rip back open as quickly as he closed them to locate the source of the ruckus. His instincts kicked into overdrive thanks to the adrenaline of fear. "

WOAH!" he shrieked in surprise leaping backwards full force.

His recoiled like a cat out of water, and landed perfectly perched on top of the head of an unsuspecting passenger seat. Black ivory claws like cold steel shot out from his fingertips and embedded themselves into the headrest. Aurum would have been thankful that his tail hadn't popped from underneath his shirt, if it hadn't tightened around his waist painfully.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!" he cried as his vision began to refocus on the source of the excitement.

The first thing he noticed was the blood red rose petals that had filled the car, fluttering this way and that and then as soon as they made contact with something or someone, they dissipated into thin air. The padding on the opposite door of the tram car had been indented as if someone had run full force into them leaving a small human like indent.

He looked around the tram car and noticed that everyone themselves, save for the old woman and a few people he had assumed were vertran riders of the tram, were shocked and bewildered as he was; not at the rose petals or the padding, but the plus one.

Standing in the middle of the tram near the doors, was a small figure recovered from slamming faster that Aurum thought was possible into the padded doors. Aurum couldn't make out what the person looked like due to him (or her) being covered in a blood red cloak from his hood covered head, to his large black and red combat boots. The cloak hood covered his head, leaving his eyes enshrouded in shadow but leaving the runner's pale face out in the open. He noticed the beginnings of red headphone speakers covering the ears, and a few strands of black hair that bled over into a red at the end of it, jutting from the hood mouth. A small feminine hand stuck out from the cloak holding a… large Bucks Star coffee cup.

Aurum could feel a large sweat drop roll down his head as many things began to run through his mind. The first was that if this old woman knew this was going to happen, it was going to be a daily occurrence if he was to take the tram until he could drive to school.

" _This guy nearly split himself in half in the doorway for coffee?"_ Aurum thought to himself, as to why the kid nearly killed himself twice in a matter of two seconds.

The third was that he was nearly bulldozed over by some kid who came up to his shoulder. Aurum would have started a laugh of nervous relief, until he remembered that he was still perched atop the chair, with his claws embedded deeply in the head rest.

He remembered another thing that his uncle Tusken told him a few years back as he retracted his claws discreetly and got off of the seat.

" _A gentleman never unsheathes his claws,"_ he heard Tusken say in his head. _"Unless your in the company of friends, family, or about to engage in fisticuffs."_

" _Friends,"_ he thought to himself as the excitement began to die, and the passengers began to take their seats. He had a friend back in Vacuo, one who matched his personality and was able to have a goodtime with him, damn near perfectly, aside from his pickpocketing habit the guy was a mentor, a friend, and somewhat of a brother to him. Aurum hoped he could find someone who was a best friend to him, like Sun, scratch the pickpocketing.

Taking his seat he looked out the window at the now rising sun. Well if he was going to become a freelancer, the best place to be was at here, and if he was going to make friends, what better place to be than a school?

Watching the world speed by out his window he felt a twinge of newfound confidence.

"Welcome to Patch." He mumble to himself smiling.

 **So yea that's that finally. Procrastination, school projects and laziness are truly a dangerous cocktail.**

 **To the people worried about my other two stories "Man meeting his bestfriend" and "Hunting the devil himself" please don't worry. I have not forgotten about you. Maine is going to get his due, as the next chapter is currently underway.**

 **I really am just doing this one as a personal project mainly because I was overly emotional when RWBY's creator Monty Oum passed. The idea came to me about a year ago and I thought it would just remain in my head forever, until it started to affect my head as I went on throughout the day. New ideas and chapter plots and shit. So to rid my brain of the story (or mainly to get it to shut up about it) I started writing, and when I remembered I had a FF account I thought ehh, might as well make your guys suffer through this with me right?**

 **So any who thank you for reading and see you in the next chapter.**

 ****I want to apologize beforehand because the next chapter has a lot of set up content and new characters and shit so it's a long one.**

 **YautjafromEarth out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note: I am so sorry that I made this chapter so damn long. I was realise that I had to expand on details of the school and of the characters, and the fight scene, but damn I didn't think it take this long. I actually have a lot more work to do tonight because I want to get this part of the story out of the way.**

 **Somebody asked me why I picked a Tiger for my Faunus, and someone else asked why I made this a Lycan Fic (you will see why I call it Lycan instead of "Werewolf") and I will answer that in the next chapter or so, because it is SUCH freaking good reason (Spoiler alert: I will angrily rant so enjoy my pain)**

 **Thanks for sticking with me and without further ado, let's do this.**

 **Chapter 2: Evaluation exam**

"-ell you one thing, the kid can take a beating that's for sure." Aurum heard a deep thoughtful voice say

"That there is no long term damage here is nothing short of a miracle," a calm, professional, feminine like voice replied.

"I like his ears. They're adorable." A smooth girlish voice interrupted, causing the conversation to pause for a moment, then the professional voice continued, " Well I think that we should take care of him here, the reason why you two are still here is because I need your help to treat him.

Aurum realized the voices were talking about him, when the stinging sensation under neath his left eye flooded back to him. From what he could tell, his coat, sleeve, and shirt, had all been removed and he was lying on a hard smooth surface. His tail had been neatly placed on his stomach, and out of the loopholes on his pants he placed it in prior to this situation. Cracking his right eye open, he immediately shut it as a bright light came into view, blinding him.

He couldn't remember exactly what happened to have him in this position. His throat was very dry and scratchy and when he tried to swallow he felt as if Oum himself, was trying to shove an angry beowolf down his throat. This caused the boy to release a weak, pained grunt, which seemed to get the attention of the people having their discussion.

He heard footsteps near his left and right coming closer to where he was lying. The ears atop his head twitched left and right when the sound of footfalls were made, picking up at least two or three people coming towards him.

"See?!" the girlish voice began excitedly, "What part of that is not awesome?"

"Awesome or not sweetheart, this needs to be done and needs to be done _Now_." The professional voice inquired with a little bit of force behind the last word.

Aurum could feel his heart in his begin to beat faster upon hearing this. What needs to be done, what has to be taken care of? The pinging noise from earlier began to sound quicker as he began to try and sit up. He never made it off the surface. Trying to arch his back sent a shockwave of pain through his ribs and with another pained grunt, sent him with a soft thud back onto the table. He would have asked what they meant by that, but that last grunt had actually caused his dry mouth to moisten with a liquid that tasted warm and irony, so talking probably wasn't the best thing to do right now. Trying for a second attempt at sitting up was cut short as the warm palm of a large masculine callused hand, gently but firmly pushed him back onto the table.

"Don't struggle kid," the owner of the hand's voice said," you'll just make it worse on all of us."

 _OK. What is going on?! What are you about to do to me?_ Aurum thought starting to panic. The pinging noise off to his left began to sound faster.

"Wording, Dad." He heard the girl softly muttered off to the right of him.

Aurum tried to open his eye completely, and saw three silohetted figures, their faces in shadow due to the lighting. The two figures to his right were male and female, in that order. The man, currently with his hand on the boys chest, and his other arm on the table to support himself, was from what he could make out, a tall, defined man, with numerous strands of blonde hair dangling infront of his concealed face. This man, if he was not mistaken, was one of the judges of his entrance exam. Quickly racking his brain to put a name the figure he remembered.

"Tao… Long," he managed to croak out before a fit of painful coughing. The warm irony, liquid flew from his mouth as he wretched out each painful cough, and to rub salt into an open wound, his the ribs underneath his left pectoral muscle, sent shockwave after shockwave of pain through his body.

"Oh yea, he took it deep." The girl's voice declared.

Aurum then felt smaller hands, gentle but firm, on his abdomen and legs, as if to stop the boy from writhing in pain.

Upon looking at what he could from her, he saw that she like the older man who was stabaliing his chest, also had blonde hair, yet he could make out the faint scruff of beard coming off the silohetted man's chin.

Aurum then turned his eye to the left side of him, when a feminine silhouette was mumbling something about an air passage, and then something along the lines of "-break his ribs…".

The silohetted woman then turned to face him, after reaching off into the darkness away from the powerful ray of light, holding a long metal object.

 _What are you doing with that? Where am I? Who are you people?_ Was what Aurum wanted to say but all he could muster was a scratchy painful "Whaa-ack!" before going into another fit of agonizing coughs, and tasted more iron –and this time, soot?- in his mouth.

"Uh-uh-uh," the woman chided as if she were his mother, while her cohorts proceded to again, brace the boy against the surface he was laying on against his will.

"I see your suffering darling, but don't worry." The woman told him, walking closer to where he lay with her metal object. What is was in actuality, he couldn't tell, his eyes were blurring in and out of focus.

"We'll put ya out of your misery." She told him stepping closer to the point where he couldn't see her face, but he saw her torso, an outfit of blueish-green hue, and the sharp metal object in her… bloody latex gloved hands.

That was when he completely panicked.

The pinging noise began to pick up its pace as his right eye, now ignoring the painful ray of light, shot completely open and his breathing became choppily hoarse and rapid, as he tried to make his escape thrashing desperately against the pain of his throat, ribs, left eye, and the strength of the woman's "assistants". Aurum bucked his hips, his ribs screaming in protest to this action and ushering a pained grunt from him. The action caused the "assistants" to both jerk back slightly in surprise, then just as quickly as their arms and hands left, they were upon him again, firmly holding him against the surface. Aurum thrashed around trying to break free, and began to hear a mash up of different alarmed voices as they held him down.

"Seriously guys, wording," he picked out from the flurry of voices, as he assessed his life, wondering how he ended up in this situation.

 **15 minutes earlier…**

Aurum took a deep breath from where he was waiting. He'd admit he was nervous, after all he was scheduled to go up after two more people. Aurum was currently sitting in a chair, in a hallway, of Signal, the school for training Huntsmen, to become Huntsmen in training. He would have chuckled to himself at that joke, but a buzzer was sounded, signaling for the next person in line to enter the gymnasium like room, and begin their exam.

Why they had to take the exam one by one, he would probably never know. The boy ahead of him moved over a seat, and he followed suit, making it closer towards the door. Aurum's tiger ears began to twitch, to the best of their ability, underneath his bandana in anticipation, causing the boy to pull his hood over his head to cover them up. The last person to enter that gymnasium took almost an hour, and he did not want to have to spend another twitchy eared. That would just draw attention to him, especially if some nosy human got curious and asked what was up with his bandana, or even worse, try to touch it. He could guarantee there would be two things they would be bound to notice.

Scooting over to keep the line going, Aurum relaxed himself into the chair and began to look round the hall. The area was a crime scene of high school activity. Colorful posters hung on a bulletin board, possibly clubs and other high school activities. Aurum began to question as to what the posters were of and about. If they were clubs, then it would be a little strange seeing how it was a school for fighting monsters, and someone would want to take part in a glee club on the side. As he fidgeted slightly in his chair, he heard a loud thud, and a louder "UUMPFH!" as if something made contact with someone.

Peaking his curiosity, he along with a few other curious students, got up out of their seat and peered through the window. From a darkened window or it being a darkened room, he couldn't tell, he could only make out the people in the room and a few brightened colors they were wearing. Near the front of the room against the left side of the wall, was a podium of some sort with three people, who he assumed would be the people evaluating him, sitting on the podium a little ways from each other with only their shoulders and heads visible. While their shoulders and heads were visible, the only thing that Aurum could make out was their hair colors. The first had a very dark purple braid trailing sitting in the crook of their neck, the next was a reddish brunette color covered by a hat, and a very bright blonde with a stubbled face. The blond man had motioned for someone to come forward, and the way his head was moving as he talked, he seemed to be talking to more than one person.

Aurum couldn't make out what they were talking about amongst themselves but his eyes fell upon the student who had entered prior to him getting up. The student was in the fetal position and from the looks of it clutching his leg as he rolled around in pain. Just then something that he didn't expect happened. The blond man's motioning brought forth a small figure enshrouded in a blood red hood!

Aurum jumped a little, accidentally bumping forcefully into another onlooker as he did so. That was the boy from the tram ride! Aurum was actually a little relieved when he saw the blood red figure. Once he arrived at Signal, he stepped off the same time that he did. He had gotten a little wrapped up in the scenery for a second before he remembered that he was supposed to be looking for the Evaluation facility. From the corner of his eye he notice that the hooded figure had done a double take upon looking at him. Aurum at first ignored it, but then when he kept on staring, and even brought a hand and a black sleeved arm, out of the depths of that cloak and to his chin, as if studying his face. Aurum was starting to feel a little awkward, he couldn't tell if the boy was looking at him or something else, due to the top half of his face being concealed in shadow. He could feel a large sweat drop rolling down the back of his head, so to break the awkward tension between him and the strange boy and said, "Hi, umm have we met before?"

Actually now that he thought about it there was something familiar about that cloak, like a déjà vu, or a piece of a memory from his younger years that stood out.

The boy shook his head, as if snapping out of a daze, then awkwardly looked down at his nervously shuffling feet.

"You have… white hair…" the boy stuttered softly in a high, unsure, feminine voice. Aurum could feel his tiger ears snap towards the direction the "boy's" voice. Definetly feminine, but that voice! There was something very familiar.

"What did you say?" He asked her.

The girl opened her mouth to say more, but then a high pitched ring came from her cloak.

"Oh crap!" she cried, producing a scroll from her cloak and checking the time.

"I'm Late!" she screamed, "aww man! Dad's gonna kill me!"

"Wait! What did you mean by th- ACK! "Aurum tried reaching for her arm.

Then he blinked.

 **WOOSH!**

Aurum coughed and spat as he opened his eyes, spitting out the blood red - rose petals?- that trickled down from his mouth and dissolved into thin air, just as they appeared. Looking in the direction that the girl was headed before she vanished, Aurum saw a trail of rose petals that trickled down in the direction of the school, dissolving just before they hit the ground.

Upon following them, he found what he was looking for – the evaluation facility- which lead him to his examination lobby, where these other students were waiting like him.

Aurum watched as the cloaked girl helped the boy up and acted as a crutch for him as he limped towards the door on the opposite side of the large gymnasium.

 _Man,_ Aurum thought to himself, _I'd hate to be the guy who has to go next!_ He chuckled to himself.

His smile faded when a loud buzzer assaulted his ears, and the following bellow of "NEXT!"

Aurum tried to back up but being one of the first to be able to peak into one of the windows, there was a small crowd behind him, and no room to back up. Apparently the student who was sitting in front of Aurum, didn't like the idea of injury, and like Aurum, had no idea what was beyond the border of the doors, decided to pull a last minute dick move, and when the automated doors that they leaned against began to open, he shoved Aurum past the border of the door, just as it closed shut.

"Hey!" Aurum exclaimed as the door closed shut.  
"AW YOU PRICK!" he shouted at him through the rectangle window. He couldn't see whether the boy's face was one of amusement or remorse, but he knew enough to know that he was going to kick his ass when he got out of- "Excuse me?"

Aurum whirled around to see the three judges looking down at him from their podium.

The woman with the purple hair, a bony thin woman, with sunken eyes and a wrinkled face that made Aurum cringe a little, was inattentively checking her scroll. The reddish brown haired man, who was sporting a fedora atop his head and a smirk on his face. The man had a young face, no older than 30 had a tan button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing his veiny forearms as his rested his head upon his knit-together-fingers.

As he stepped towards the podium, he saw that the man who had spoken was the third judge. The blond man. He was currently standing up so Aurum saw a his broad shoulders, and how small his muscles made his shirt look. The man looked like an boxer, or a MMA fighter, yet like a regular man at the same time. What was his most prominent feature was his hair. Bright blonde hair that was very tied into a small ponytail as strands hung in front of his face. The man's face showed signs of past battles, with a scar that went from his left cheekbone, trailing to the right, and stopping about an centimeter away from his nose. His eyes however were a fiery red that were hard to look at straight on from brightness, or from the meanacing appearace he gave off, Aurum didn't know. The man looked like someone who could start a bar fight, one that consisted of everyone in it against him, and enjoy every second of it.

"What did you say," the man spoke again sternly.

Not wanting to piss off a new teacher, Aurum tried his best to cover up his mistake.

"Oh no! This guy-," Aurum said pointing at the window, which was now vacant of anyone peering in.

"He… I mean… I" Aurum tried and tried to plead his case to the stern faced man, but finally saw no point in it.

"I'm in trouble aren't I?" he sighed.

The face of stern discipline faltered slightly, then melted into one of pure joy before his eyes, as the blonde man erupted into laughter.

"Oh I almost had him!" the blond laughed lightly nudging the second judge in the shoulder, who in turn, gave him a slight smirk that faded just as quickly as it came. "I mean, its just…" the blond man said between his last round of chuckles. "Aw cmon, nobody thinks that's funny?"

"What my colleague is trying to say," the second judge wearing the fedora stated to the boy, his voice collected yet amused, "is that little unexpected quips like that happen a lot during these exams, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh," was the only response they received from Aurum, who was currently looking around the large gymnasium. It was a dark area, save for the lights from the judges' podium, and the light that produced the large circle on the gym's floor he stood upon. As he took in his surroundings, he noticed that there was a smaller light, near one of the corners of the gym. A small blue light that illuminated the darkened shape of a person sitting in the corner of the gym. From what he could tell, the person was definetly female, and had a large amount of hair.

Before he could continue trying to make out the figure acrossed the gym, he heard one of the judge's clear his throat. Turning round the man in the fedora spoke, "Well I suppose we should get started then."

"Yep," the blonde man said rolling his neck and shoulders, " My name is Tao Long, this is India Jones, and –"

"Dr. Jones," the brunette said sternly at Tao Long who grinned and put his hands up in mock surrender.  
"Alright Ms. Formalities," he snorted to himself. Then he pointed to the mature woman at the end of the podium. "And that is Ms. Ursula," he stated dully, reciving a grunt from the unattentive woman in response.

Tao Long leaned over the podium, as if that would make a difference with distance, and placed a hand to the side of his face and loudly whispered, "She doesn't want to be here."

The elder of the two face Tao Long and after a grunt, causing both two slide slightly away from her.

"Of course I don't want to be here boy," she growled at him. Though she looked frail, she gave off an aura of powerful abilities, and in a voice calm, yet cold as ice continued. " I have places to go and people to see. I don't have the time to watch the grass grow. Not to mention these evaluations, while entertaining," she stated as if it were a fore thought, "can get old really fast. If you don't mind, I'd like to finish these evaluations before my next birthday!"

Through his bandana, Aurum's ears managed to pick up a small muttering feminine voice during the still silence.

"If you survive that long…" the voice.

Aurum would have laughed but he didn't out of fear of the old woman, and because once again, another familiar voice came to mind.

Turning his torso slightly, turned his head to see the figure in the dark corner. The blueish light coming from her scroll illuminated her features slightly, and since his night vision only brought him blinding pain under a powerful light like this, all he saw was the outline of a mischievous smile on her shadow enveloped face.

When Dr. Jones, cleared her throat to break the silence, he turned around to face the judges once more.

"So," Dr. Jones began reading off a clipboard, "Aurum Khan, age-"

"Wait! Khan!?" Tao Long abruptly exclaimed slamming his hands down on the table as he stood, causing everyone in the gymnasium to jump, save for Ms. Ursula, who only gave the man a sideways glance of a cross between anger and annoyance.

"As in Sheera Khan?!"

Aurum was a more than nervous now. Tao Long knew his mother, meaning that he probably knew that he was a faunus as well. He also heard a shuffling noise near the edge of the gymnasium, and the bluish light from the girl's scroll, clacked against the ground, as if even she stopped what she was doing for clarification on the matter.

After a moment, Aurum sighed, and said, " She's my mother…"

Tao Long gave a short hearty "AHAH!" then slammed his hand again, down upon the podium. "I can't believe this!"

"T?" Dr. Jones asked, "you know the kid's mother or something?"

Tao Long's scarred face was one of child like joy, as if meeting a long lost friend,  
"Know her? She was the freelancer of my team! Let me tell you she was something special!"

 _Oh no,_ Aurum cringed. This guy was gonna give him away! The last thing he needed was a repeat of all those middle schools, here, at a place where getting knocked out by a bully with a blunt object, was to an extent, acceptable! He couldn't remember anything before that, and what he did was fragmented, as if his mind lost bits of memories like… special people in his life that he couldn't remember as badly as he wanted too. _Humans can be cruel_ , he thought to himself.

He snapped back to reality when he remembered that Tao Long, no matter how familiar, was about to give him away, and possible in turn, make him have to repeat all that happened before.

Trying to get Tao Long back on the topic of evaluation he began, "Well that's what I heard but do you think I could-" , unfortunately he was once again cut off by Tao Long's excited ramblings.

"Man she was one of the best f-"

 _NONONONONONONO-_

"-reelancers I've ever known!"  
 _Whew!_ Aurum thought the he was over the hump. But Tao Long continued!

"Not to mention she was such a f-"

 _SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP,_ the mantra rapidly repeated in the boys head.

"-ree spirited person!" _Oh thank Oum!_ Aurum let out a discreet, shaky breath, hoping he got off scott free. BUT THAT STUPID BLOND KEPT ON TALKING!

"Her semblance? Incredible! You could say she was an absolute beast on the battlefield!"

 _OH MY GOD STOP TALKING! I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE!_ Aurum screamed in his head as began to grind his teeth, adding more stress to his cringed expression.

"Not mention she was a the best f-"

Aurum knew he was screwed, the poor boy squeezed one eye shut, and took in a sharp quiet intake of breath, and waited for the axe to come down.

"-aun-ACK!"

A flash of grey and purple, and the most unexpected of saviors, Mrs. Ursula, with surprising speed for her elderly stature and frame, shot from her chair and reached past a startled Dr. Jones, and with a wrinkled, bony finger, used her long purple painted nail to hook Tao Long by the cheek. Before Tao Long could react, Ms. Ursula had used her long and sharp looking thumb and index fingernails, to reach up and clamp with a vicelike grip, down upon the man's tongue as well.

Tao Long resembled a fish on a hook, flailing his arms trying to break free from the old woman's grip as she slowly pulled him down closer to her.

"Owowowowowowowowowowowowowow!" Tao Long complained, but his pained cries fell on deaf ears, Dr. Jones apparently wanting no part of what the man had gotten himself into, backed up out of the way in her chair and remained silent, wide eyed however, and cowering behind her clipboard but silent nonetheless.

Ms. Ursula pulled the large man down to where she met the man almost brushing noses, so that he could meet her face to face, and she did not look happy.

"Listen to me now boy," She hissed at Tao Long in a sharp, raspy voice, "I don't care if you know him, I don't care if you know his mother, honestly I don't care if he's your own God damned son! I have things I would like to do today before I spend another year holding the hands of snot nosed children! I am certain that India," she gestured with her head at Dr. Jones, who still had her wide eyed expression plastered upon her face. "has things to do today as well. We don't need you to have a conversation with any and every brat you could possibly know from somewhere! I for one would like to finish before a have my next birthday!" Ms. Ursula pulled the man a centimeter closer, "I may be one of the oldest teachers to work at this school Mr. Xiao Long, but do not think for a second that if you hold up this evaluation any longer, that you will not have the pleasure of outlasting me!"

The entire gym fell deaf, as the large man, was put in his place by a frail _looking_ old woman who looked as if she would drop dead any second now.

Through clenched teeth she growled, "Blink twice if you understand me."

Two blinks later, she released the Tao Long from her vice like grip. "Ahhhhhhhhow!" The man groaned in relief of pain as he sat back down, rubbing his currently reddening cheek.

Aurum could have sworn he heard a snicker from the figure in the dark corner but figured it was best not to speak anything of it. Not after that performance.

As the old woman sat back down, she turned to Dr. Jones and in the nicest, old woman like voice, she said, "You may continue deary."

An icy feeling shot down the back of Aurum, and maybe Dr. Jones, caused them both to shudder at the same time, as Dr. Jones stood and continued.

"Well- I- Um-," Dr. Jones began trying to not crack under the pressure of having Ms. Ursula stare at her with one of the most cold, yet warm hearted _looking_ smiles anyone could ever give.

"L-l-lets begin the evaluation!" She stammered out.

Ms. Ursula, acted as if it was Dr. Jones' idea the whole time.

"Oh! Excellent idea Ms. Jones, simply splendid! You'll get far with that thing working between your ears that way! That I'm sure!" the old woman exclaimed clapping her hands.

Tao Long, recovered from his most recent injury, eyed the old woman sideways as he began to speak.

"Yeah… Ok. Look kid, were just going to have you go through a simple obstacle course first, nothing major, we just want to see what you can and can't do." Tao Long stated.

"Ok. Sure." Aurum shrugged. He had done obstacle courses before, some man made, some were… urbanely available. This one should be no different.

"No problem!" the boy said confidently. Ms. Ursula scoffed then pressed a button on the podium.

"Yeah ok," she snorted to herself, "we certainly will see…"

That's when the very gymnasium floor began to shift underneath his feet.

Aurum took a deep breath to slow his rapid breathing. When these people said obstacle course they really meant obstacle. Aurum had just crossed the finish line of a course that would have made any boot camp master soil themselves. _I guess they want to see what you can and can't do._ He thought to himself as he put his hands over his head to allow himself easier breaths. The floor had shifted out around him, the only place the stayed stable was the spotlight lit circle he stood on from the beginning of the course.

Many of the courses obstacles were about agility, mostly events that could be related to freerunning or parkour, something that he loved, and excelled at as well. Unfortunately the style of freerunning he was accustomed to, was when he could use the extent of his Faunus appendages, while trying to hide them while performing muscle memory tasks, caused for several blunders, and seconds added on to his overall time.

Aurum wished that he could use the extent of his abilities, knowing full well that he would have blown the course out of the water, but alas, he was still trying for an incognito school year, and that just wasn't a luxury he could have he supposed.

Aurum, if anything, was really just grateful that Sun wasn't watching him. Knowing his friend, it would have been the same outcome, but with more laughter from the crowd, and more chastise remarks such as, "Did I show you how to fall on your ass man? Well you were doing this way before I came along anyway, so maybe you're just being you right now. Be who you are you flightless bird! FLY!" and "HAHAHAHA! I can't believe this! I've shown you once, I've shown you a thousand times dude! If you can grab a cup you can grab a pole! You have a tail, Use It!"

Uggh, he shuddered. Aurum should stop himself right there, Sun had bled over into his mother in training mode, and frankly he didn't think that he needed two of those at the same time.

"OK Kid that was great!" Tao Long called from his seat as Dr. Jones scribbled on to her clipboard, and Ms. Ursula fiddled with the podium controls.

"We have one more examination to do and then your free to go!" he smiled.

"What is it?" the boy asked, curious as to what was in store next.

"My favorite part of these evaluations." Ms. Ursula muttered to herself smiling as she continued to press buttons on the control panel.

Tao Long sighed then with a tentative smile, turned slightly to Ms. Ursula and asked through his teeth, "Are you going to be as rough as you always are with this? Because we've had meetings about your… err ….. "Entertainment preferences" as you call it."

"Again," Dr. Jones chimed in as she finished scribbling the last few notes down on her clipboard, and re-adjusting her fedora.

Ms. Ursula simply shrugged with a small "eh," before going back to typing in something on the control panel.

Tao Long shook his head before turning to Aurum. "Alright kid, heres the complicated part. This next test is mainly a survival type evaluation."

When Aurum tilted his head slightly Tao Long continued, "Basically were going to test your combat skills, see what you know and what you don't. This will show us if your capable of defending yourself right of the back, or if we need to start from square one basics."

"Oh," Aurum said. That was probably why the boy from earlier was being carried off by the girl in the red hood. Well it wasn't the first time he had spared with someone. Garrett and Sheera made sure he was capable of defending himself after he told them he wanted to become a huntsman. So this should be no different. Just show them what you know and then were done here.

Aurum smiled to himself before replying, "Sounds easy enough," unknowest to him what the real challenge was. "What do I have to do?"

Without looking up, Ms. Ursula continued to type on the control panel as she grinned, "Take out the bots, and try not to brake something in the process."

Just then, three man sized holes appeared from under the podium, and three robots stepped from the holes.

Aurum's eyes widened in shock, this was a fighting evaluation! He thought the boy before him had slipped or pulled something! He didn't think the guy has his ass handed to him by some robots.

The robots were a foot taller than Aurum was at least, with a metallic black tint to them that made them slightly shine in the light of the gymnasium. Each robot had humanoid features such as the heads resembling a bulky shaped helmet from Red Vs Blue, and the eyes a visor that glowed a dark maroon. Luckily they had no facial expressions, otherwise it would have been more off putting. The robots had bulky chest plates that resembled a metallic armor. The metal adversaries had armor plates round its calf areas, and five fingers that had metal knuckledusters on the fists. Slightly underneath the red strip that illuminated the robots chest, near the right side were numbers.

 _AK-95… AK?_ Aurum read. Wait, that couldn't be could it?

Upon closer inspection he noticed the seal of the company that made… Atlesian Knights?! That couldn't be right. They had stopped making 95s because of the complaints they had received from basically the whole world. With arms that drooped to the bent knees; longer than any human or faunus' would, the way the neck was stuck out further that the rest of the body, making the robot appear to be in a menacing slouch. While it was supposed to be a police assistance droid, helping the police when needed in violent criminal cases, and standoffs and such, everyone including the police, declared the drones to look to much like Beowulf grimm, and the 95' model was canned shortly after. So what was one doing here at a school for Huntsman?

Oh wait.

It's because it looked like a Grimm.

Got it.

"Ok, just like the last evaluation, were gonna take this nice and slow." Tao Long said, looking and emphasizing to Ms. Ursula that they wanted no incidents.

"Uggh, I swear back in my day it was learn fast or die, you kids now a days with your square ones, and your basic training …-"

"Well I guess that's how it worked in the Stone Age, but I don't think that throwing a spear and hoping for the best is a very sound strategy if you ask me," Dr. Jones muttered under her breath, earning a cough from Tao Long, a snort from Aurum, and a glare from Ms. Ursula.

"What?" Dr. Jones asked Ms. Ursula, raising her hands in a surrendering motion and feinting innocence, yet scooting over slightly to Tao Long's side of the podium. Ms. Ursula grumbled something then pressed a button on the podium.

The AK in the middle, lifted its head, and shifted its shoulders from their previous slumped over state, into a standing straight position. The drone clanked towards Aurum, who took a fighting stance at the first sight of the robots movement, lifted a metallic hand and pointed at Aurum, and in a scratchy metallic voice, rasped out, "Intruder! Identify yourself!"

Figuring that he should get the drop on the bot before it could carry out an attack, Aurum sprinted at the drone and once in range for an attack leapt into the air. His opponent shifted as if to prepare itself for an attack, but before the drone could fully move on the defensive, Aurum shot out his legs in front of him, his momentum hurtling his body legs first right into the drone's chest plate sending the robot backwards a couple of yards and onto its back with a loud clang. Aurum landed as well on his back, if not for his coat, or that he braced himself for the result of the attack beforehand, he would have knocked the wind out of himself. Pushing of the gymnasium floor, Aurum brought his body over his head, rolling backwards into a low stance to confront any assault in the unlikely event that the attack had not phased the robot.

Seeing the robot vulnerable on its back, having trouble righting itself on its feet, Aurum had to close the distance before it righted itself again. Aurum jumped on to the robot, straddling its waist, and pinning its arms next to its waist. Aurum then sent a punch after punch to the robots visor. The reinforced knuckles on his gloves eventually succeeding in cracking the red light, causing it to begin to flicker on and off.

'It can't fight what it can't see,' was his reasoning behind the attack, and he thought it was pretty sound unto he remembered the lesson part of his mother and Garrett's training.

" _When fighting Grimm, Babosa,"_ he recalled his mother explaining after a spar with her resulting in him on his back in the ring, in pain, trying to suck in lost air from his lungs that had just been knocked free from him. _"It's always good to put one down, but keep the encounters with each one as brief as you can."_ She told him offering him a hand. _"You make it quick when it is crutial because you need to be ready for the next one,"_

" _Next one?" he rasped taking her hand as she helped him up._

" _What do you mean?"_

 _Sheera grabbed the sides of his face and touched their foreheads together as her orangish green eyes locked with his cerulean blue ones, making sure that his attention was on only her and what she had to say. "Because where you find one Grimm, you can almost be certain that they are not alone,"_

By the time Aurum caught his blunder it was too late. He had ceased his assault on the robot's visor and sat upon the struggling bot to replenish his lungs' supply of air after he had hit the floor back first.

The rest of the world was currently background noise, from the clanking of the struggling robot, the impressed remarks of the evaluators, and the old woman's declaration of "Finally! One turns out to be interesting! What a relieving change of pace! Time to kick it up a notch!"

Wait What?!

After Ms. Ursula's exclamation, Aurum turned his head to the left just in time to see the second robot to the left activate, and send a kick straight into the boy's ribs, sending him roughly off the still struggling robot.

As a dull pain entered Aurum's side and a small groan left his lips, as he uncontrollably rolled to a stop a few yards` away from the robots, he heard the evaluator's remarks upon that, along with scribbling from pens on clipboards.

"Ooooooooh!" Dr. Jones winced in pain behind her clipboard.

"That's gonna hurt!" Tao Long said in a strangely concerned voice, followed by the sound of a chair squeaking acrossed the podium, as if he was ready to go up and assist the boy off the floor if need be.

"Mmmmmm," he heard Ms. Ursula grunt, "And I thought this one was a change of pace. Oh Well. Another one bites the dust I suppose." She said uncaringly cold.

He was about to slowly pick himself up, as not to offend what could be injured, until he heard another voice.

"C'mon Ari. Get back up!" the voice said in an urgent hiss-like whisper.

The girl in the corner. He had completely forgot she was even in the room, on account of how quiet she had become. Turning his head he found her shadowy silhouette through the darkness of the rest of the gymnasium. No longer in the laid back position he first saw her in upon entering the gym, the girl was now off the wall, from what he could tell in a crouch with an arm to support herself on the ground. He could be sure but it also looked like she was leaning closer, like someone eagerly engrossed in an event.

"C'mooooooooooooon!" The girl continued in a low sharp whispering hiss, "Get up!"

Well he was in a little pain but- hey! The hell was he saying? He told himself he was gonna make his first impression a lasting one, and dammit he was gonna see to that! Besides, Sheera and Garrett had put him though much worse when he first declared his career choice to try and deter him from it. This was nothing. This ain't got shit on him!

With a new found drive of determination, Aurum quickly rose to his feet, ignoring the throb in his ribs, and assumed a fighting stance facing the Atlesian Knight.

"Yes!" He her the girl quietly cheer from the darkness behind him.

This also got a louder cheer from Tao Long. "ALRIGHT!" he bellowed clapping his hands,

"LET'S SEE WHAT YOU GOT KID!"

Then noticing Dr. Jones turn to Ms. Ursula and say "Gonna take back what you said?"

Ms. Ursula in response pressed another button on the podium and replied. "Not yet."

The third Atlesian Knight activated, and made its way past the still flailing first, to stand near the second.

"Surrender now!" the robot's deep scratchy voice warbled at Aurum.

"Not a chance," Aurum replied pounding on his chest with a fist, "This is my house!"

The two Atlesian knights looked at each other for a moment.

"Does not compute." The bot said turning back to Aurum to see the boy's fist collide with the unprotected area of its torso, the lower abdomen. The robot stumbled clunking awkwardly backwards. The robot's comrade swung for Aurum's head, but missed as the boy ducked, stuck his leg out, and spun around, sweeping the robots legs out from under it.

The robot hit the floor with a loud clang, as Aurum, used the same leg to raise, and heavily bring back down on the chestplating, causing the robot to slightly spark and warble.

Aurum then leapt backwards only into the range of the second, who had recovered from its stumble, and sent a foot into the boys back, knocking the wind out of him, and sending him foreward into the direction of its now righted companion. The robot sent a fist into the boys cheek, then with its abnormally longer arms, a large backhand collided with the same side that was his earlier, yet high enough to graze his face as well, once again, sending the boy flying acrossed the ring.

Aurum collided with the bottom of the podium, sailing over the still struggling robot, and landing on his stomach with a loud "URGNF!" thankfully his bandana still remained atop his head, and nothing was seriously injured from what he gathered.

As he tried to regain his bearings, more remarks and winces were heard from the judges, incomprehensible muttering background noise in his ears, but none the less still remarks. His vison blurred a little from that last attack, and when he spat from the awkward feeling his throat, he tasted iron this time.

As his hearing returned, he heard over the judges' conversation something he didn't quite understand. As his sight returned as well, he managed to see past the robots, who waited for his rebuttal to their attack, and saw the girl still in the shadows of the room. There was a glow on the side of her face, indicating a conversation of her own with somebody on her scroll.

When his hearing got better, his tiger ears protruded upwards slightly from his bandana, making it stand up a tiny bit, he heard a one sided conversation.

"-uby, you have to hurry up or else you're gonna miss him! I don't care, if your almost there, pick up the pace!What do you mean he is heavy? The guy can't be pushing 130! ….That is not heavy! …just drop him off and get your butt back here before you miss it…. He is tearing it UP! Just hurry up!"

While he wasn't sure who this girl or who the other girl was either, he felt like… he knew them. He recognized that voice, it was more mature now but still, he recognized it. He would ponder this more until a metallic robotic voice began to countdown.

" **10\. 9. 8.** –"

This was a continue countdown, to see if the boy could continue fighting. He then tried to rise again, but felt a sharp pain in his side, that made him collapse again.

" **You cannot succeed** ," The robot that threw him warbled, " **Surrender now**."

Aurum gritted his bloodied teeth. Whether this was a taunt or not was unknown however Aurum sure as hell treated it like one.

 _You can't_.

Words he was told for all the time he spent on this earth. Random people, Teachers, bullies… doctors.

Bullies. He had to deal with them all the time he spent of this earth as well. They had put him through hell on Remnant. Name calling, beatings, manhandling his tail and ears without his consent, all of it. He could even recall a time when one glued his tiger ear to his hair, resulting in a humiliating haircut done by the school nurse. He was tired of it and to be honest he figured anyone else would be too.

Aurum began to feel anger boiling inside his gut as he began his second attempt at getting up, his ribs screaming at him to relent in his attempts.

" **7.-"**

"Stand down, you will not succeed."

Those words began to run through his mind like a record on replay, screaming in his ears.

The odds had always been against him, time included, and he wasn't going to lay down and take it anymore.

" **6.-"**

Aurum rose to his kneeling position, his ribs screaming at him in protest. But their screams fell on deaf ears, or more like it, occupied ears, as the robots warnings continued to beat in his ears like war drums.

And the bubbling anger in his gut told him it was time to go to war.

The bubbling feeling in his gut grew hotter, however this was a good feeling to him. He felt his claws begin protrude underneath his fingernails, and he began to bear his teeth and fangs as, low baritone tiger growls began to leave his throat.

As the background noises of judges began to resemble curious or worried questioning noises possibly directed at the boy, Aurum's head slowly lifted to fact his adversaries. The robots were gone, and in their places stood humans. Humans wearing old uniform, a teacher's choice of clothing, and a doctors scrubs, each from different times in his past. Their faces obscured by porcelain masks that with dead smiles glared evily at him. Whether an illusion or not, the anger inside him would not allow him to care either way. The fury in his gut demanded to be released, hammering against his stomach like the rapid beating of his heart.

His thoughts of keeping his faunus appendages secret were being corrupted slightly by his fury.

 _Hold it!_

 _Their just claws, who'd be able to notice them?_

 _The claw marks on the enemies! Explain that?_

 _I don't want to._

 _They are going to ask for an explanation!_

 _Less talk more ripping to shreds._

 _Eh what the hell, lets cross that bridge when we get to it?_

Fury won out over reasoning, and his claws quickly slid out with a **shink!**

Then something that would have been questionable to him if he wasn't so worked up happened.

A voice in his head, one that was not his own, not of his thoughts, or a voice he'd ever heard in his life time, spoke. Calm, masculine, smooth and… heavenly. " _Breathe_."

This voice was not of his own mind, and if he was not so worked up, whe would stop to ponder it. However he was in fact worked up and taking out his fury on those who wronged him in the past was his top priority. The fury bubbled over at this, and with a loud roar that made the entire room's inhabitants silent, the boy charged the robots, scraping his claws against the floor to slingshot himself towards his opponents – make that **victims**.

Aurum faced his victims, and breathed a large amount of air into his lungs. Upon exhale he released a powerful roar that echoed throughout and silenced everyone in the gym as well. " **Rrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaworrrrrrrrrr!"**

Aurum charged the bots head on, his heart pounding in his ears, as he began his rage induced, adrenaline fueled assault on the robots.

Before the two bots could assume a complete defensive stance, he was already upon them. Leaping into the air as soon as he was in range of an attack, Aurum sailed through the air towards the bot on the left, sticking his leg out, Aurum twisted his torso at the last minute performing a roundhouse that sent his foot colliding heavily against the side of the robots head, his full power and weight behind the kick sending the bot to the ground.

Landing on his hands and feet in a low position, facing the second bot, Aurum was met with a metallic fist to the right side of his face. Surprisingly to everyone, the blow did not send the boy flying like the others, nor even phase the boy, however the boy did receive an open wound on the corner of his upper lip, but even more surprising, the boy didn't seem to notice or acknowledge it. His only reaction to the blow was to slowly turn his head back towards the bot, spat out a red glob, and with a bloody, violent grin, continued his assault. Snarling from the most recent injury, Aurum quickly recovered, and putting his full weight behind the attack, speared the robot's midsection with his body.

The judges looked on with surprise and wonder as the to-be student, with a strained roar managed to lift the robot off the ground!

They watched in controlled amazement as the boy then shifted his weight backwards, sending the robot visor first into the gymnasium floor. Sparks from the robot's head and midsection flew against the floor as the two met the floor, and the robot's red lights on its torso and face, its body weight on its head causing the neck to spark and make a crumpling noise on impact as the visor flickered a few times, and then went from a deep red, to an inactive grey.

"Impressive." Dr. Jones muttered as she multitasked scribbling notes on her clipboard and watching the skirmish unfold.

"This one shows that his semblance could possibly come from emotion. Something about surrendering must really tick him off."

"While I don't believe that his semblance comes from pain, I can say that the child may have repressed memories due to his reaction towards the robots warnings." Ms. Ursula said, her typing on the console never faultering as she input her comment.

"His semblance could actually be similar to you and your daughter's Tao Long, in the means of having a trigger." Dr. Jones states as she jokingly tugged on a pinch worth of the man's golden locks.

"Hey!" he protested with a small grin, his eyes never leaving the arena as he shooed the woman's hand away from his golden locks.

"Yes, it also has physical changes towards it as well." Ms. Ursula input more towards herself than the other judges, to which they both faced her and said at the same time, "What do you mean?"

The old woman pressed a button on her console, causing a holographic square to appear infront of the podium.

The square then showed an enlarged image of Aurum's face previously before the skirmish began. Sweat dripping from his forehead as he looked towards the camera.

"This was before the boy suffered the second blow to the side." Ms. Ursula explained to the younger teachers, who studied the boys face thoughtfully, and nodded that they observed all they needed to see. Then she pressed another button that split the square down the middle, the original face shot moving to left to make room for the second.

She pressed another button that then showed Aurum's face as of now from the robot's perspective and froze the feed on a clear shot of the boys face. The judges then made their own individual grunts and noises of realization, shock, and etc. Aurum's face was one of that resembled a determined fighter in an uphill battle. A horizontal open wound to the left of his forehead trickled lines of blood from the wound and down the side of his face. Another bloody injury, the cut on the right of his upper lip trickled more blood into the mouth frozen in a snarl at the robot, staining the teeth (and to all their suprize) elongated, fang like canine teeth. The judges has also been surprised to see that the whites of his eyes had turned black, and his once round pupils had become like cat slits and his cerulean eyes seemed to glow. His face had become riddled with lines. "Those weren't there before," Ursula stated.

 ******AUTHORS NOTE: (I don't think I did a good job with his facial marking descriptions so here is a couple refrenece photos to use how you please/ KK back to the fight******

They weren't from any injury or from the floor, they seemed to have appeared upon his face during when the boy began to fight with more ferocity.

The main two lines, started from his eyes, first covering the eyelids, ran down his cheeks flared out slightly and then continued their path down his face, stopping at the edges of his jaw. Another line began at the brim of his nose, and then stopped at the tip. The line reappeared on his mouth, starting in the middle of his bottom lip, and then running straight down his chin. Two more lines on either side of his face at least an inch and a half from his chin, sprouted from his jaw line, and stopped in sharp points when they aligned with the corners of his mouth.

His facial features had changed as well, his nose seemed wider than before, and his mouth was open to reveal a pair of fangs. The whites of his eyes had bled over to a dark black, illuminating his now glowing cerulean and golden eyes. His pupils has also went from a small round to a pair of slits like a cats.

The judges were shocked to say the least, as such a physical transformation. It was strange. Almost bestial.

"He looks like a tiger…" Tao Long mused to himself causing both Dr. Jones and Ms. Ursula to stare at him for a second before returning to the screen.

"I can't be sure that his semblance is triggered by emotion. Pain perhaps?" Ms. Ursula questioned the others.

"Maybe…" Tao Long responded still looking at the picture. Damn it he wished Qrow was here! He could do more with this information about Aurum that Tao Long ever could. Lucky sonovabitch was called out for a hunt on the far edge of Patch. The only reason he was here was because Qrow had brought up his assignment at the last minute today and dumped it on Tao Long to fill in for him. Tao Long hadn't minded in the slightest, today was just going to be another evaluation day. Robots would be calibrated for the test, kids would fight the robots to test their strengths and skills, he would evaluate said child as they fought said robot, robots eventually would kick the crap out of kid, and as his daughters would cart them away to the infirmary as next victim-…Student! I mean STUDENT! Would be brought out for their evaluation. No one said anything about playing 'Guess the Semblance' with these kids.

Now he was stuck with the hard stuff. Damn you Qrow.

The three then turned their gazes back towards the boy in question who had just dispatched of the last robot.

Aurum began to stumble backwards slightly. The adrenaline had not worn off yet, and it didn't seem like it was going to anytime soon. He felt great, refreshed, AMAZING! He stood over his adversaries proud of himself and his work. Before he began to feel hot in his hands. He figured that it was just from all the punches he received. But the heat in his hands persisted, not subsiding like normal, but increasing. He felt like nothing could stand in his way, like he could sink his teeth into solid metal. He threw his head back and let a loud roar erupt through the gym.

" **MOOOOORE!"**

"Well if you insist," Ursula shrugged smilng, ignoring the protests of Dr. Jones and Tao Long.

As she began to enter a series of coding into the podium screen she confronted Tao Long and Dr. Jones.

"We have spoken consent from the boy. Not to mention he just tossed a 250 pound Atlesian Knight like it was a tin can. Something is… off about the boy. This is an evaluation and I'd Like to evaluate the extent of his abilities just to be sure."

Both Mr. Xiao Long and Dr. Jones were silent, yes there was something off about the boy, and they would like to delve into the matter, but still how much delving could be done until it was to far. This was after all to test the abilities of students, not have them become punching bags to… well… the punching bags.

After a small huddled conversation, Tao Long turned to Ms. Ursula and said, "Lets stop if it feels like its to much for him, not many students have made it this far on evaluation day and I don't think it would be wise to put him out of the game for the first week of school."

Dr. Jones nodded in agreement with Tao Long, as Ms. Ursula nodded back and continued to enter the codes into the podium.

"OK Mr. Khan," Dr. Jones began at the boy who was seemingly infatuated with his hands at the moment. When he heard his name called his head snapped in her direction like a predator catching wind of prey.

India jumped slightly as her round green eyes, were met with predatory slitted, piercing blue eyes, making her jump slightly. Something was not right about him indeed. While she hated to admit it, Ursula had made a good call.

"Were going to move on to a one on one skirmish, if it feels as if it is going to be too much, please let us know."

The only response she received was a loud low baritone tiger like growl that seemed to be emanating from the back of his throat as his head and eyes darted this way and that looking for his soon to be opponent.

A large opening in the floor opened up before him, revealing his opponent. The adrenaline filled boy did a handspring backwards to fully access his opponent as it slowly rose from beneath the floor.

It was another Atlesian Knight, or something similar to one. The robot stood as tall as his older brother Garrett if not taller, at somewhere above 7 feet, the large black and red robot stood tall. Humanoid in form yet the key letters after human was I-O-D. It resembled the AK-95's in frame and in posture, but the head upon it looked more… bestial. Two Large red diamond shaped eyes glowed connected by a red line going crossed its face. The AK was very beefy (if you could call a robot that) in frame, and while the 95's looked like Beowulves, this could be considered robotic Ursa Minor. Its arms were longer than its short legs, making it look more like a gorilla than a bear, yet the telltale spikes on its back and on its fore arm-or (good one Aurum) was the defining characteristic. These used to be for the police force for a short time, but after the startling image to criminals, civilians, and even the police alike, and its performance in catching criminals was less than satisfactory due to the size. The buckets of bolts were needless to say less than gentile with everyone. Soon they were used in the army at the end of the one of the most recent wars as walking shields and heavy support, and transporting injured troops. But that idea was to transport them safely and alive, and with how slow they moved and there the track record they had with handling people, lets just say theyre were more complaints than thank yous.

"Were gonna go slowly with this one Urusula." Tao Long said sternly towards her as she continued to work on the behemoth from the podium key board.

"If you insist Tao-y boy," the old woman replied as she disabled the projectile weapons and decreased its maximum speed, she also turned off the autopilot giving her remote control over the robot.  
"Ready for round 2?" the old woman muttered before pressing the activation button, causing the AK-95-E to shift from its passive state into its standard battle stance as the red stripes that littered its body began to light up into a blood red shade.

The metal behemoth seemed to be waiting for the boys response to its activation, but Aurum's attention had been turned to the one sided conversation in the shadows.

"Where the heck are you Rubes? I'm telling you you're missing all the good parts of his fight! …. He just lifted a AK like it was nothing! …. No I can't tell them to stop the evaluation just for you. Why do you want me to stop it anyway? Just head back to Gym 1. … How can you be hungry? We just ate like an hour ago! … I swear your metabolism is gonna be the death of you, by starvation, or getting bloated and popping! Listen things are heating up down here! … Did he use his semblance? …I don't know actually. His face is covered in some stripes that could be it… No! I'm not describing them to you! Just get down here they are bringing out the 95-E!" and with that the girl hung up on the person on the other end.

Who were these girls, why did they look so familiar, he had never seen them before sure but, he felt like he knew them to some level. Who ever this 'Rubes' was, he'd keep an eye out for them later on, he wasn't sure what the intentions of these girls were, and why they were so excited about his evaluation but he was not inclined to find out. Humans could be as cruel as they could be nice, and you never knew what packacge they would come in, so he would keep a close eye on the two.

He was pulled from his thoughts when the large robot in front of him stomped heavy metallic foot on the ground. This made the boy nervous. The foot alone was the size of his torso! He gathered his thoughts and set them on the back burner of his mind, as he felt his adrenaline surge through him again, his confidence returned too, as well as the strange heat in his gut from before.

"Begin!" Dr. Jones declared.

Aurum once again on the offensive charged forward at the metallic behemoth, but it was waiting for him. Leaping into the air he headed straight for the visor, seeing as how it relied immensely on sight. He never made it towards his goal as the behemoth raised its gargantuan sized arm and back handed the boy away, its knuckle dusters brushing the boy square in the chest. Aurum flew backwards and tucked in on himself to roll over himself as he hit the ground, landing in a combat kneel, heavily snarling at his adversary. Studying his prey for a second or so, a bloodied, toothy, bestial grin spread across his face as he found weak points in the behemoth. He charged again, and the robot ready for him this time, made to block an attack to the head as he leapt, only he cut his distance by tucking into a roll, and passed through the behemoths legs.

"What?" Ursula said as she tried to keep up with the change in strategy. But it was too late.

Stopping his movement just behind the robots legs, he stuck his leg out and spun on the ball of his foot, connecting with the bow in the robots leg, causing it to fall into a kneel. The boy grinned _"The deer cannot flee if it has no leg to run on"_.

He began to deliver blows to the robots legs and sides of its torso, while weaving in and out of its underarms, making hims a hard target to counter for the robot's arms weren't designed to attack where he was moving; through the under arm areas.

Aurum began to get cocky as the heat in his gut began to bubble hotter. His luck ran dry when he made the rash decision to attack the armpit areas of the robot with an uppercut. The AK-E saw its opening and dodged the blow aimed for its left arm, and turning to the left managed catch the boys arm with its right. The robot then slammed its fist and its handful against the podium's face, with the boys back against the judges.

Aurum began to struggle after recovering from the shock of being grabbed by the behemoth. Writhing and pulling trying to break free of the robots grip. His efforts of escape were cut short when the AK-E's warbled voice came from its head. "Surrender, worthless scum." His head snapped directly towards the robots visor as it cocked its left arm back to send a punch at the boy.

It was the standard phrase given by all the training robots at Signal for a combatant to throw in the towel if they were in such a standardized fight with no winner until the combatant reached his or her limit. But as the judges looked at the boys marked face through the eyes of the AK-E and into the eyes of the soon to be student, they saw no inclination of declaring defeat, no sign of surrender, only determination and rage were found in those glowing goldish cerulean eyes. At as they began to discuss what his semblance could be, should they continue with the match, and several other key points, each could not help but feel a shiver down their spine.

Aurum glared back into the visor of the robot baring his teeth and snarling viciously at the robot. His growl getting deeper and louder with every breath to continue sound of defiance. His heart beat faster as he began to fear the fist of the behemoth. But something inside of him, something that had been suppressed for so many years had bubbled to the surface. Fear was immediately grabbed from behind and had its throat slit as the rage that bubbled in his gut began to surface. It numbed his pains in a fiery embrace, it dilueted his other voices of reason, and it clouded his vision. No longer did he see the metallic face of the AK, but the porcelain mask. The porcelain mask with the painted face and emotionless, yet sick smile that was worn by every bully, every teacher, every policeman, and every human that had been a dark spot in his past.

 _Surrender, worthless scum_.

Those words pounded through his brain like an angry hornet. _"How many times have we heard those words?"_ the only voice that remained vocal in his head asked him, adding fuel to the fire that raged in him. Aurum himself could not remember. He had lost count. They always thought they were better, and he had always had to bend his knee no matter how much he didn't want to. It didn't matter what they did for they always got away with it. It diddnt matter what he said, because THEIR society always said he was wrong. It had eaten through him like an angry honey badger. The dam that held his tongue and controlled his actions around his "betters" finally crumbled and the he let the hate flow.

Aurum had no intention of backing down anytime soon. He would never surrender to this bastards will. He had years worth of oppression and abuse coming to the surface and something was going to pay.

Dearly.

He let the anger, the rage, and the frustration, wash over him completely. It felt hot. Really Hot. Like he was burning up. But the pain was welcomed and it began to feel heavenly. Like a whole new side of him was behind an closed door, and he just opened it and on the other side was Fire.

It was around that time that Aurum exploded in a flash of cerulean blue light.

 **Authors Note: I am so sorry that I made this chapter so damn long**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hello Oomans**

 **I said I would be busy. Didn't I? Apparently I have a writers high, or whatever the hell that is, maybe you get it from smelling old books. I was in a library earlier today….**

 **I digress. You're not here to by nerd crack that I got from the library unless your into smelling old books. In that case the code word to be left in the comments is Banana. Again I digress.**

 **That part at the end of the last chapter discussing Aurum's rage. I will clear that up right here. I'm bout to get real hear motherfuckers listen up. If you're like me and spent the around 9 years of your life being bullied by your peers for the smallest of things, having to move aside for the jerks in the class because if you don't they will walk all over you, and you have nothing to say, honestly its hell, for those who were the bullies or luckily never had to experience the torture that you have to endure day in and day out until you either move away or they move away or one of you switches schools. That type of shit sticks on to a person for almost their entire lives. I mean I've endured it so much I'm virtually bulletproof now, but like in the last chapter before you become bulletproof, you usually have to overcome a breaking point, when they reach their limit and snap. Basically Aurum reached his breaking point and snapped, and therefore unlocked a semblance. Wait was I supposed to say that? A semblance? The fuck? Guess to make sense of my words you bitches are gonna have to keep reading! HAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **** Also has anyone been paying attention the names of the brands I'm doing throughout my stories like EX: DUTY OF THE CALL = CALL OF DUTY, I'm also going to have a few names of different Rooster Teeth cast members, and characters from different RT shows thrown in here and there. There basically Easter Eggs in books. READING FOR GAMERS MOTHAFUCKAS!**

 **If you spot one of the brands or names leave it in the comment section – I WORK HARD ON THOSE BRAND NAMES! THEY ARE CLEVER AND YOU BITCHES SHOULD APPRICIATE THEM**

 **N7 Recruit: Congrats on being the first follower for the story dude. "Is there going to be any romance in the story for Aurum?" I cannot answer that with a complete response right now, so I'm going to say –ehhh… ask me again later.**

 *****I'm pretty sure I confused some people with my description of Aurum's facial tiger markings so if you would like to see my inspiration for the tiger markings. I will post the links to them below, and where I describe them in the story.**

 **. /a439a9c143710e47e5b49d3525033f80/tumblr_nfw52c5GvN1rcumipo1_**

 **. /091732f0516cca731cf868c7177685c6/tumblr_nh63oizSSB1u607clo1_**

 **fs71/PRE/f/2014/013/8/4/connor_by_**

 **Thank You all of you for your likes and support, so let's do this.**

 **Chapter 3: Evaluation Exam Part 2**

The Gymnasium was illuminated in a bright cerulean blue light. The judges shielded their eyes as best they could from their podium.

"Ahhhhh!" Tao Long exclaimed as he blocked his gaze from the blue light. "Dammit! I had the damn shades on earlier for this exact purpose!" He complained as the light died down… slightly.

"T?" India asked, trying to get his attention as he continued his rant.

"You take them off for one second and next thing you know your eyes are on-"

"Tao Long!" Dr. Jones grabbed the back of his cheek and turned his head in the direction of the arena.

"Fire…" Tao long finished as his eyes widened. At the boy in the far end on the arena.

Aurum had managed to slip from the AK-E's grip leaving the robots hand blackened with soot and smoking. He stood hunched slightly catching his breath in angry ragged intakes, his eyes closed as he sucked in air to replenish the supply he lost escaping. Oh yea and he was on fire. Tongues of cerulean blue flames licked from his arms to his ivory black claws, making them glint in the light. His face was a different matter. The blood was more prominent around his mouth, due to the light blue glow of the inside of his mouth. His face all together was more illuminated due to the fact that… oh sweet Oum his hair is on fire! It was true. Fire licked sprouted from his hair making the black roots of his hair more prominent, and the white collective strands a blueish glow. The two braids on either side of his temples surprisingly kept their shapes, and surprisingly enough the two beads on each braid didn't even begin to burn or smoke. To his trained eye, unlike the other two judges, who didn't know what Aurum truly was, he noticed Aurum's tiger ears flattened against his head still in an aggressive position. Tao long mentally questioned where his white and black bandana went until he saw flaming and smoking bits and pieces of cloth fall from his hair. His sleeveless coat was completely ruined, as the flames completely ate up the coat up to the bottom of his shoulder blades. Burning and smoldering holes riddled the coat as it turned to a charred greyish black. His athletic arm sleeve was in tatters, leaving his forearm and bicep exposed on both sides through burned fabric hanging tangled round his flaming arm by a few taught strings.

*AN: . /a439a9c143710e47e5b49d3525033f80/tumblr_nfw52c5GvN1rcumipo1_

"Well!" Ms. Ursula said cracking her old bony knuckles causing Tao Long and India to wince at every old pop.

"This is the first exciting evaluation I've seen all day!" Ms. Ursula said in a gleeful manner, yet it still came off creepy to the other two judges. "Let's see what he can do shall we?" she asked aloud as she began to work the AK-E control panel.

"Just as long AS YOU TAKE IT **SLOW!** " India yelled over the robotic behemoth activating and turning to face the boy.

The robot stood tall , and assumed its standard fighting stance before it requested once more for the boys surrender.

" **Surrender now, worthless scum.** "

It was a request filled with reverse psychology to encourage students to keep fighting and push themselves.

Aurum's ragged breathing stopped and he stood up straight. He inhaled through his nose deeply and then exhaled through his mouth letting a shaky breath, glowing blue light, and surprisingly a gust of steam.

His eyes flicked open the whites of his eyes had turned as black as his claws. The pupils glowed gold at center, and cerulean blue around the gold just like when he first showed the judges his facial tiger markings, that now were completely visible against his illuminated skin.

*AN: . /091732f0516cca731cf868c7177685c6/tumblr_nh63oizSSB1u607clo1_

Aurum then took a look at his flaming skin, the anger that fueled his hatred slit his fears throat several minutes ago and was now currently taking a piss on its body. He stared at the palm of his hand as flames danced around in, then slowly balled his hand into a fist, cracking his knuckles as they tightened. He felt the power of Oum himself surging through him. He felt powerful, immoveable, and unstoppable. He felt as strong as a dragon with his newfound flames. And twice as lethal. He broke into a predatory grin, before his eye flicked back up at the robot's visor, causing everyone on the podium watching through the robots visor to jump slightly. .

*AN: fs71/PRE/f/2014/013/8/4/connor_by_

Even his voice seemed to grow raspy and deeper as he looked the behemoth straight in the eye.

" **Make me**." The boy challenged. With that the AK-E closed in on the boy and fired its cocked arm at the boy. It made contact with a dull smack.

"WOAH!" the girl from the shadows exclaimed. The fist made contact. But Aurum stayed in place as his hands were working against the robots fist as he strained against the metal monster. Smoke began to rise from the areas on the AK's fist he was grasping.

" **You must be pretty lucky to have a powerful fist like this huh?"** the boy's sick grin only grew wider as the metal began to creak and groan. Aurum then completely shifted his weight, spinning on his heel to a one 180* degrees and then kept twisting causing the creaking of the metal to grow louder until it gave way. The two metal bars that served as the robots forearm snapped, the interior of the arm reveal to the world as its wires sparked and spurted oil. Aurums flames touched the oil sending streaks of blue up the AK's arm and disappear inside the cracks and openings in the behemoths damaged arm bring the metal monster down to its knees as it used its one good arm to support itself. He could finish it right now, but Aurum was having too much fun to take this seriously. It's not every day you get to take out your frustrations like this and he had a lot of anger and frustration to deal with, so he was gonna make the most of it. Spotting one of the AK-95s on the ground near the recuperating robot, Aurum began to make his way over to the deactive robot, his boots leaving a flaming foot print with each step he took. Grabbing the leg of the 95 he place his boot on the abdomen of the robot and grabbed the leg. With a strained growl he ripped the robots leg from its body sending oil and sparks from broken wires onto the floor of the arena.

On the podium…

As Ms. Ursula fiddled with the controls of the AK-96-E trying to regain control over its main functions, Tao Long and India Jones began to discuss the boy's semblance. Keyword was began.

"Impressive strength," India stated out loud. Looking at Tao Long with a ghost of a grin on her face she leaned over and asked. "Are you sure he isn't yours?" This caused Tao long to simply stare back at her with an emotionless gaze. India blinked a few times. Tao Long never blinked or even moved from about a minute, she honestly couldn't even hear his breathing.

"I…I… thought it would be… funn…I mean he has fiery hair so… You and your daughter have…" India tried and tried again, but nothing made Tao Long drop his stare, or his poker face.

India sighed. Tao Long was a great teacher, and an even greater coworker and friend, and was usually the instigator to prank and other situations, but when his daughters or his family was mentioned in the wrong context, well… let's just say that he had a very "explosive" personality. One might even call it "fiery". India mentally high fived herself as muttered an apology to her friend.

"Sorry."

"Mmmm."

Meanwhile in the Arena…

Aurum approached the large bully with the porcelain smile mask as he lightly hit the metallic leg against his palm as he approached.

" **I'm gonna beat that smile out of you for what you did,"** he told the mask.

He wound up and brought the legs heel down against the side of the AK's head with a loud clang as metal crash against metal. The metal monsters visor flashed white during each impact before returning back to its blood red color as he hammered away at the head and torso, making dents and bangs as he continued his fiery rage fueled assault on the metal behemoth. The sound of every blow ringing in his ears felt like heaven as he could finally release what he had bottlenecked for all these years,

 _CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

It was all the humans fault. It wasn't his fault that he was this way, but they didn't seem to care, either way they saw him and his kind alike as 2nd class, cannon fodder, their personal whipping boys, **their steping stones.** It was why he was treated differently, why he had to bend to their wills and laws that prohibited him from doing what they could day in and day out, it was why he couldn't… remember. No matter how hard he tried.

He couldn't put the past behind him if he couldn't remember it completely. Maybe he wouldn't have snapped off like this if he could. He cackled dryly as he continued to reduce the AK-E to scrap metal. And whose fault might that be?

After a few seconds of blunt force trauma, Aurum seemed to grow tired of swinging around an AK's leg around, the flaming boy soon lost intrest with his blunt weapon, shrugged at it and then chucked it over his shoulder before cracking his knuckles again. This stoked his fire, making it glow slightly brighter as his anger clouded emotion. His gloves had unfortonatly been incinerated when his semblance was unlocked, but he didn't seem to notice.

Aurum felt the sting of the sore spot on his ribs from his bout with the 95's as he cocked back his left arm and sent it into the AK-E's visor. The pain numbed by his anger egged him on to keep fighting, to prove them all wrong. To prove them all DEAD wrong.

He began to pound his fist into the robots head in an enraged flurry , finally cut short when the behemoth managed to push off of its supporting arm, causing the boy to make an evasive retreat to keep the distance in risk of an attack.

The robot seemed to assess the situation, looking at its smoking dismembered appendage on the ground then throwing its head back and releasing a loud warbled metallic roar.

Aurum began to chuckle, through his eyes he saw the human wearing porcelain smiling mask, swearing and cursing his name at how he had put it in its place. There it goes again, trying think its better than me. How cute.

His flames crackled and popped as they licked his arms and smoldered his arms sleeve slowly off his body turning to soot on the ground before him. He may be covered in blue fire but he was seeing red. He wasn't done. He wanted more. This fucker would take more. Oum knew he did. It was time he got his due. This bastard would be sorry it ever challenged him.

He was about to let out a bloodcurdling roar to let this human know of his mistake before he something made him freeze. Be that, someone, made him freeze.

"WOAH!" a feminine voice shouted, this new voice echoing through the gymnasium, causing everyone present to jump, startled at the newcomer.

Aurum's eyes widened and his flames that covered his arms and hair seemed to die down a bit as he realized who it was.

It was the girl from before! The street, the tram, the gym carrying off that injured boy, it was him! He hadn't been able to see him clearly since their previous encounters due to that… cloak. But now the cloak rested at her back, and the hood had been pulled down, giving him a complete view of his features. He studied her face of absolute joy and awe as he Wait scratch that, he thought as his eyes widened more. Make that a "her" features. Something in the back of his mind had told him that the "boy" was a female but he couldn't put his finger on what did.

Her paleish light face, yet in a good way completely free of blemishes or acne, had the look of awe and absolute joy. Her hair was short cut ending at her neckline. She had a small nose, in comparison to her …Silver eyes. Silver eyes… why did that stand out to him. Maybe it was something that he couldn't remember. He searched his memory banks, yes maybe he had seen them somewhere befor- OWWW! A strange pang of pain hit Aurum in the brain, causing him to lower his fighting stance slightly to clutch his forehead as he winced inwardly at the pain. But as soon as it came, it disappeared. Strange. Aurum's eyes never left the girl as he took in her features. She was small, around 5'4. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a rock band on the front and grey sweats that pooled around the large shin high combat boots. What made her stand out so much, Aurum couldn't put his finger on it, and he had only unofficially met this girl today. Right? The sharp pain in his head returned as he tried to search his memory for a time he could have met seen someone that matched her description.

"Why is this happening?" He asked himself as he held his forehead. Why can't I remember?"

"Ruby! Sssssssh!" the girl from the shadows hissed in a whisper, trying to silence the bubbly girl.

Ruby?! "Gaaaaah!" Aurum quietly groaned in pain clutching his forehead tighter, the flames dying down a little bit more. Aurum's eyes widened as his pain left something very prominent in his mind.

A picture of him as a little kid, smiling with one of Patch's forest clearings behind him.

Aurum blinked to himself. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts. That was weird. That picture. It meant nothing. It was just from some old forest in near his house. He couldn't shake this feeling that he had. It was weird. What did this girl, a human no less have to do with him?

He opened his eyes and looked at his this girl, Ruby again, who either didn't hear the older girl's chastising or didn't acknowledge it.

"Ari did all this?! COOL!"

Ari? Wait a second. Ari was Garrett's nickname, for him! How the hell did this girl know about his nickname? His fighting stance completely dropped as he lowered his hands and continued to look at this bubbly girl.

Tao Long, whom seemed to be straining at his seat in the podium while the other two judges frantically moved left and right, Dr. Jones with a panicked look on her face.

"Ruby, No! Please sssssh! Quiet down!" Tao Long grunted, his scarred face beginning to drip with sweat as he kept the strained look on his face.

"WOAH! YOU HAVE FIRE? YOU LIKE DAD AND YANG!" she exclaimed happily.

"Auugh!" Aurum cried dropping to his knees and clutching his flaming head in his hands. The pain had returned and it felt like a knife cutting through the front of his skull.

His brain pounded against his skull as he tried to sooth the pain. His mind made something stand out once more. And once more it was that same picture that hung in the living room of his house. 'That picture' he thought. What was about that picture?

The pain feeling like an eternity, subsided in a matter of seconds. He slowly took his hands from his head, the first thing in his line of sight was the girl. Ruby, the bubbly girl still excitedly talking and bouncing on her toes rapidly. When she finally stopped it gave Aurum time to examine her face. Why was she familiar? Yang? He got the same feeling about that name too, and he couldn't put his finger on it, no matter how hard he tried. Make that no matter how far he searched his memory, that pain pulled him back to reality. Reality was telling him… Wait. She isn't smiling anymore.

It was true. The Ruby girl's face went from absolute excitement, to absolute horror in half a second. As he was pulled from his thoughts a sound increased in volume.

"…-ruM LOOK OUT!" Tao Long's voice screamed.

Aurum turned to the direction of the judge's voice, just in time to see a large metallic fist slam into his bruised side of his ribs.

 **Meanwhile at the podium…**

Tao Long was impressed with the strength Aurum had, yet slightly terrified from the ferocity of his attacks. The boy had grown into a strong young man, suprisingly. Last time he saw Aurum the boy was 8 years old, fragile and weak, and saying goodbye as he and his mother moved for Vytal. While he was glad that he had grown out of the ailments he suffered from birth, he was curious as to why the boy wanted to be a Huntsman. Sheera had certainly raised him as well as she trained him well, but what struck him as odd was what the he was doing here, and why Sheera changed her mind about training him in general, wanting him to live a more quieter, normal-er life. He would have to talk to her about her. Among other things like why he had a fire semblance. Sheera's semblance was NOT fire. It raised the question; how did he get this semblance? Semblances were passed down from parents to kin, and had to be unlocked if the child wished to accept the gift of power, making semblance using criminals a rarity, for the Parents themselves had to be of huntsman decent or go through rigorous training of the body and mind to for their Aura to create a semblance if they were not of descent. The Semblance was passed down through bloodline, yet could be slightly or majorly altered in its manner of use by the next generation to receive it. Some Huntsman didn't have a semblance, period.

Tao long was puzzled as he studied the surrounded in blue flames as he ripped a leg of one of the Atlesian Knights and proceeded to use it to mercilessly beat the AK-96-E in the head with it. It honestly made no sense as to how a Fire semblance was produced Sheera's semblance, a-… well… he'd call it an enhancing semblance because she had never explained the details of it to him, although it seemed very cliché to him, like something out of a movie. He had to speak with her about this. Yes, he could talk to her when she came to pick Aurum up, the girls would love to see her again after all this time. Maybe then they all could discuss the serious matter she was talking about earlier,but wait.

Tao Long stared at the podium clock and saw the time. He wasn't sure if they would be able to talk long, It was getting late into the evening and it was a Full moon out tonight. Tao Long wasn't sure as to why she was so skeptical about Full moons, but the Tigress rarely would hang out with them on these types of nights, and when she did, she wouldn't let her guard down or relax enough to have a beer with Qrow and him and the rest of their friends. He had marked it off as a side effect of her enhancing Semblance. Side effects were not un heard of when it came to semblances, and many semblance users suffered from them. They could be like he and his oldest Yang, who oddly enough got their power from their hair. Or they could be like his youngest Ruby, who's metabolism never seemed to slow down causing her to develop a friggin huge sweet tooth, and forcing her to have to drink a protein shake large enough for a football player just to start off the day functioning normally. Side effects were usually limits that the body put on themselves to stop itself from destroying itself using these awesome, yet dangerous powers.

Wait a minute, where was Ruby?

Tao Long looked around past the boy who seemingly got bored with his blunt force weapon and took to using his claws and fists, putting a 4 digit claw mark through the metal face of the robot before pounding into its skull relentlessly, squinting as he searched through the darkness for his little girl.

She had left to take that previous victi- STUDENT! (he had to stop doing that) to the infirmary, and had not returned.

"She's probably getting a snack." Tao Long muttered to himself as he spotted his older daughter Yang's shadowed form near the door. A small light was illuminating a small part of her face as she talked on her scroll, probably trying to reach her.

Just then the podium began to emit a small warning sound, audible to the judges. Ms. Ursula checking her camera that showed fight from the AK's perspective, saw a small rectangle warning box reappear and disappear over the feed of the shaky vision the robot suffered from due to the flaming boy's punches, the feed jerking left and right with each punch.

"Looks like he's doing some damage." India said as she watched Ms. Ursula try to regain control of the robots movements.

"Indeed," she replied. "He just made the remote connection weaker. I need to cut the power from the defeated models."

As Ms. Ursula ordered India to do something Tao Long didn't hear with the wires underneath the desk next to the computer tower, Tao Long couldn't help but smirk at how tech savvy the old woman was.

Sure she was old fashioned but apparently she liked to keep up with the times. Maybe it was just so she could be the one controlling the robots to fight the students. Tao Long grinned slightly before answering India's call for help to hold the computer tower steady as she worked. That old woman really needed to get a hobby that didn't involve injuring someone or watching someone fight, and if she did, she should probably get another one.

Tao Long managed to catch the tower one handed before it toppled over, but due to the tight fit of the podium, he wasn't able to have a stable grip, let alone small enough to fit underneath to use both hands. His strength alone was enough to keep the tower from completely going over, but the angle he had to hold the tower, with his head above the desk, still wore him down. His arm was starting to hurt when India gave the report that she was almost done, he gave a strained shaky sigh of relief before sucking in more air, just a little bit longe-

"WOAH! Ari did all this? COOL!"

The voice of his daughter interrupting each of their concentration on their individual task, causing each one of the judges to jump in surprise, and in the process unplug or nearly break something important.

India banged her head against the podium desk, while accidentally unplugging a wire from the computer tower, Tao Long's jump of surprise helped the wire come free but he was able to shift slightly and catch the tower before it fell completely over, and Ms. Ursula's jump made her hit the controls of the AK-96-E, disabling the manual control, forcing the robot to be switch to autopilot.

"Shit!" India cursed, before trying to fix what came a loose, Tao Long with a burst of adrenaline from panic managed to set the tower upright, before standing up.

"Ruby SHHH!" He hissed trying to quiet his daughter who turned to Yang's shadowed form that apparently was trying to do the same thing.

"Oopsie dasies," Ms. Ursula said in a inattentive mutter as her hands began to fly accrosed the controls, and keys of the control panel and keyboard simultaneously as she watched the screen.

"HE HAS FIRE LIKE YOU AND DAD, YANG!"

Through the robots cracked vision, Tao Long could see that Aurum had fell to his knees as he faced the girl and clutched his forehead with a pained expression on his bloodied face with one hand, and clutch his left side with his other, the kick to the ribs obviously affecting him as he bent over.

"She said this would happen…" he muttered to himself. He remembered what Sheera had told him when she called and told him they were moving back to Patch. She had wanted him not to mention anything to the girls about it, or let him see them before she was able to talk to them and she didn't even want to explain what "it" was. But she told him that she would tell him in person, and that was the end of it. Before he began to ponder what it was, a small rectangle over the kneeling boy appeared on the screen that read: AUTOPILOT RE-ENGAGED, SETTING: THIRD YEAR H.I.T AURA USER: AFFIRMATIVE.

"What is that?" He asked Ms. Ursula who continued to type on the keyboard.

"The Autopilot on the bucket of bolts has been turned back on." She muttered concentrating on what she was doing.

"But I just replugged in the manual control cord!" India called from under the desk.

"That takes time to load deary!" Ursula snapped at her, signaling her to keep working.

"And even more time to gain authorization." She added as the robot stood to face the boy, a white pulsing circle around the boy turned red and stopped its pulsing before the boy grew smaller in the robots vision as it rose to its full height.

"Really?" Tao Long asked panicked over the sounds of clicking keys as the robot did a bodily scan on itself and saw its dismembered arm on the ground.

"You were able to do this quicker before!" he hissed desperately at her as the robot turned its vison back to the injured flaming boy.

"I already had authorization boy! Now stop nagging and help India for Oum's sake!" Ms. Ursula shot back quickly, not even looking away from the screen over the sound of her keys.

"AURUM LOOK OUT!" he screamed at the boy.

Too late.

Tao Long watched in horror as from the AK in front of the podium, made a movement, looking through its cracked visor on the screen he say from the corner of its vision, a large fist come from nowhere and slam into the boys bruised rib side, just as he remembered his foe.

Aurum, jerking his head to the left as he clutched his left side, doubled over letting out a cry of pain that resembled an injured predator that echoed through the Gym. Aurum with fresh blood running down the corners of his mouth threw his head up to face his foe with pained yet defiant eyes at the robots visor, his flames round his arms, shoulders, and hair increasing to its original power and brightness, just in time to have the robot's fist backhand him crossed the right side of his face, sending the boy a few feet backwards and onto his back, clutching at his eye as he writhed and screamed in pain on the ground.

Tao Long watched the back of the robot in front of him as it, leapt into the air, ready to punch Aurum with enough force to kill him. With no Aura to defend himself, Aurum would be a sitting duck, like a bull sent to slaughter, or in this case a tiger about to be poached.

Tao Long leapt into action with a foot on the podium, his eyes growing from a light purple to a blood red, as his blonde hair in its messy horse ponytail began to glow brighter with his knuckles as they ignited into bright yellow flames. He prepared to leap at the airborne robot, if he timed it just right he could send himself and the robot over Aurum and could by Ms. Ursula and India enough time to deal with the robot, as Yang got Aurum to safety.

Before his back foot got more than an inch of the podium stage, India appeared infront of him stopping him. Tao Long, not wanting to send both himself an India off the podium was forced to do everything in his power to stop his momentum.

The robot came down, its feet landing on either side of the boy as it brought it's fist down.

"ARI!" Ruby and Yang screamed.

"What the HELL INDIA!" He yelled at her, his hair as bright a bunson burner, as he tried to move past her, but she kept blocking anyway he tried to go.

"That's the last thing you want to do!" India gasped, as she recovered from being able to stop her coworker from doing something rash and stupid.

"What?" Tao Long asked in disbelief. "Get out of my way!"

"NO TAO LONG PLEASE NO!" She pressed quickly, "YOU"LL KILL HIM!"

"ME? IM TRYING TA SAVE HIM YA IDIOT!" 

"Look!" she exclaimed, moving enough for him to see the screen over her shoulder, but not enough for him to get by her to help.

Tao Long's eyes widened as he saw Aurum, his face was a mess, from the back hand he had a cut that spread from the bottom to the top corner of the left side of his lips, lines of blood ran from the bottom of his mouth down his chin, the eye that got the worst of the backhand, what closed slightly swollen, but closed as a trail of blood ran from his eye down his face, his the inside of his mouth was glowing a light blue, illuminating his gritted bloody teeth and on top of that his tiger facial markings made his face a work of criss-cross of black and red lines. His fore head was exposed from his bangs, which were splayed away from his forehead with the rest of his flaming hair as his back was against the gym floor, showing a good sized, distorted x shaped scar just above the hairline in the center of his forehead. Veins protruded from the top of his head, as his defiant looking eye, was the look of complete determination.

His flames burned their bright cerulean, as his hands were connected to the fist of the AK, and both parties appendages, were trembling against each other.

Tao Long's eyes widened. Aurum had caught the fist!

"What are we waiting for we have to help him!" Tao Long exclaimed, attempting once more to push past India, while Yang and Ruby also moved to help.

"NO!" India declared causing all three parties to freeze.

"Us being passive is what is keeping him alive right now." India continued as she saw Tao Long's face scruntch up into once of disbelief and confusion.

"The AK is on Autopilot mode, its fighting in the standard but we haven't put specific limits on this one yet. Right now it's only focused on Aurum, and because it's a training bot its giving him a chance to get free."

"SO?" Tao Long hastily said, his daughters on the gym floor still frozen as they looked in India's direction.

"It's giving him a chance to get free because it's only fighting HIM. If we throw more people into the sparring match, it will put up a worth fight, a third year fight. It will deal with him so it can focus on the next huntsman, and be able to defend itself to the best of its ability."

Tao Long's eyes widened, as India nodded, before quickly continuing.

"That's why we have the evaluations in a darkened gym. If the bots were to detect say, one of your daughters whose jobs are to get the students who may need assistance to the infirmary, it could detect them as more huntsman to fight like it was in one of our classes, and try to keep each encounter brief so it's ready to fight another. But at the third year level…" she said looking at the screen, "-and no Aura to protect himself for its finishing move, and in the current position its in? If it detects one of us trying to interfere, it will crush him."

Both girls gasped in terror, shock, disbelief, maybe all three. Tao Long couldn't do anything to help him. His best bet was to get the manual control back online. He was on his own.

'Why did it have to be you?' he thought towards the boy before realizing what was at stake here.

"OK… OK! What the hell are we waiting around for?" he said as they began to pick back up with the repairs on the tower.

 **Under the fist…**

Aurum struggled and strained underneath the fist, his ribs and his right eye screaming at him in pain. The robot began to put its weight on its arm, and began to lean foreward, making the ribs scream louder as his arms began to buckle, bringing the fist closer to his chest by the second.

"AUUUUGH!" He cried in pain, and in desperation as the fist got ever closer and right behind it, the robot.

He began to take in shorter breaths more rapidly, his heart was going haywire with its beating, as his flames began to grow brighter. His trembling arms, began to push backwards against the fist, giving him hope that he could escape. But that hope was ripped away at the robot quickly leaned forewards even more.  
"GAAAAAH!" he gasped as he tried to match its weight. But it was no good, he was to hurt, to weak. He couldn't win. He began to give slowly, his arms folding towards his chest closer by the second. He should give in. He was hurt, and he needed medical attention. While he wasn't one to give up, he knew when to quit. His mother said that a tiger knows when the prey is to large to take head on. His rage still burning inside of him screamed back at his doubtful thoughts. It didn't even feel like his rage anymore. Let alone the screaming that wanted so desperately for him not to give up.

 **This is what they want! You cant take this lying down. Heh heh. Good Pun…**

 **NO! NOT A GOOD PUN! …RIGHT NOW ANYWAY!**

 **Your about to be defeated. Are you seriously gonna let it happen**

But a tiger knows when the prey is too great…

 **Mom aint here right now jackass! Get your head in the game! C'mon help me take this bastard!**

I can't, I got nothing left…

His chest could feel his knuckles, as his strength began to wain, and with it his flames began to die slowly as he began to surrender his strength. What could he do?

 **A tiger may know when the prey is to big to take head on, but what does it do then?**

…

 **It employs a different tactic!**

Aurum cracked his uninjured eye open and found the head of his adversary staring down at him.

His rage still playing tricks on his mind, Aurum didn't see the face of an AK-96-E.

He saw the White porcelain mask with a wicked, twisted, smile, chuckling down at him. That mask. The mask every doctor, teacher, student, **human** who every told him wrong. Every **human** he had proved wrong.

He began to hear the voices of those he couldn't even remember, floating round his exhausted head.

" _You freak!"_

" _I feel sorry for you. My daddy the preacher? Said that all faunus are to burn in hell when they die!"_

" _You'll never be that good. You should quit trying now."_

" _You little bastard."_

" _I'm sorry Ms. Khan your son can't play athletic sports due to his physic. Its to risky."_

" _I think you should start spending more time with your son Ms. Khan…"_

" _Your son wont live to see his 4_ _th_ _birthday Ms. Khan…"_

" _You're a speck of dust compared to me. A nothing! You and all kind! Squatting in the dirt beneath our feet like the ANIMALS you are!_

 **I'm gonna ask you again: ARE YOU GONNA TAKE THIS SHIT?**

Aurum's eyes shot open, his injured on letting fall a small dribble on more blood down his face as he raised his head.

The flames on his arms and hair began to glow brighter, and cover more of his arm as he began to push back against the porcelain mask's fist.

 **Everything they did to us!**

Aurum's eyes narrowed as his arms began to push harder, eliciting a creaking noise from the robots arm.

 **Everything they said!**

His arms began to burn hotter and brighter as he pushed himself. Fresh blood forced itself from his mouth and onto his chin as his ribs hollered at him to stop, to no avail.

 **WE ARE DONE!**

He pushed harder.

 **Were done just taking the abuse!**

He summoned as much strength as he could

 **WERE DONE BEING SILENT!**

He saw the fear in behind the twisted smile of humanity, as he pushed it further from himself. He kept pushing until his arms were completely straight.

 **Tigers are ambush predators anyway…**

The cerulean blue flames swirled round s arms before seeming to disappear underneath his skin.

He was beyond exhausted but he didn't care, as he stared back up in to the dead black eyes of the mask above him. He stared at the hate that burned in the eyes above him.

He grinned his bloody grin. The mask knew. It knew that it was not in control any more. It knew it had lost its hold on him. The hate that burned in its eyes.

 **If you want to hate us fine, but we don't care anymore! You want to take us down? You better be ready to burn with us mother fucker!**

Aurum then felt something in his throat. He felt that bubbling feeling in his gut again, and the feeling was strong. Really Strong. It was the feeling of power that was felt in the hearts of every faunus that wanted to be treated differently, and fought towards that goal with everything they had.

He sucked in as much air through his nose as his injured ribs would allow and his lungs would hold.

He then let out the loudest roar he could, unbeknownst to him of what else was about to escape with it.

" **RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWRR!"**

Aurum's eyes widened as a blue plume of flame was released from his mouth and began to bathe the porcelain mask in it. His eyes squinted shut as a searing pain was felt in the back of his throat.

He heard and explosion but he didn't see what happened. He felt the weight on his arms leave but he could not celebrate. He was too tired, and he gave all he had into that last push. His eyes didn't even try to fight to stay open and his back his the ground, sending him into a fit of coughs and an warm irony tasting liquid into his mouth from his throat, along with the smell of smoke.

He collapsed as the darkness began to take him and the pain began to feel numbing. He heard frantic approaching voices that got louder as they came, but soon both ears stopped working completely silencing the world around him.

He had sent his message to the mask, and that was all that mattered to him right now.

Before he slipped away completely he heard that voice that wasn't his own in his head.

 **I'll see you in hell you self-righteous porcelain bastard.**

 **Oh my sweet buttery Jesus that took longer than I thought it would!**

 **I keep having to trim these cause I never realise how long these chapters are once I get them in my head. If you like long stories, Great cause there is a lot of content in this sonovabitch, and I am nowhere close to where I thought I was gonna be, but hopefully I can pump out another one of these babies before the end of today. I should because I'm gonna be riding back to Texas from visiting my Birthgivers' Birthgiver in what you oomans call OK-lah-hom-a.**

 **Pretty sure I nailed that pronunciation.**

 **Anywho did anyone spot something with the rage? The "We''s instead of "I"s. Yea those ain't typos. That's telling you that what ever happened to Aurum and why he cant recognize everyone's favorite pair of sisters, it really fucked him up in the head bad. Not likely but maybe you'll find out why in the next chapter.**

 **And I will answer the questions of the matter of Fox and Wolf Faunus, and why I call it Lycan instead of "Werewolf " in the next chapter.**

 **I love you all, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	4. Evaluation Exam part 3

**Authors note: Hello my Oomans**

 **First off I want to apologize for how long it is taking to update my stories. My computer finally crashed, poor thing, I put that fucker through a lot. Anyway this chapter of SIGNAL, Man Meeting his Best Friend, and Hunting the Devil himself, I had all new chapters for each of them read for you guys. Then my dog decided I wasn't paying her enough attention and decided to lay her 65 pound ass on my laptop.**

 **Long story short, the computer crashed so I had to get a new one. IF anyone knows how to recover documents without having to pay $85, lemme know. Otherwise I'm Gonna have to write it ALL again by hand. It been taking even longer due to the writers block, and regaining the will to write the chapters over again. Not to mention the self-doubt in myself about my stories. Will they be any good? Will the readers still be interested? While I want to get the stories out of my head and onto this site, I also want to know that someone is enjoying the fruits of my labor. It's not really a requirement but it would be nice to know that people are interested in the story. I also realize I have to go back and scrub the grime of previous chapters so I'm gonna have to do that later.**

 **I heard that they are going to relaunch RWBY starting from Volume 3 so I was ecstatic about that because my show is gonna be back. But then I began to ask questions like, who is gonna voice Ren? I heard that Monty's brother Neath Oum is going to be the voice of Ren now. And I can honestly say that I think no one else would be better for the job.**

 **I'm Glad for the Volume 3 of RWBY and I'm stoked for it but, now that there is going to be more content I'm a little nervous. It scares me a little because now that RWBY is gonna continue, I'm somehow gonna have to shape the AU fic around it. The idea of Freelancer Huntsman I got from Red Vs. Blue actually, and now I'm worried that you the reader will begin toreject the OC's. Freelancers are Huntsman with a little more umpf. They are the support because they can use more than just there weapon. I guess a mercenary type huntsman, I will get into how that works in later chapters but I'm scared because since they announced the relaunching I'm afraid that readers won't accept that idea. Could use some reassurance (Hint, Hint) lol.**

 **I am happy to say that I am finally going to get this chapter done, because this was the hump currently of the story I had to get over. Seriously, I reaaaaaly didnt want to write tis chapter, but everything should go smoothly after this. Between my other stories of course.**

 **I Have also been told that I make my chapters a little bit to long, I dont really know if thats true, but if you think so shoot me a message and I can trim them down a little from now on.**

 **I love you all, thanks for your support, and let's do this.**

… **..**

A trip to see the Doctor- who?

The explosion blinded everyone in the room momentarily, as parts and pieces of the Atlesian Behemoth clattered to the ground. Tai Yang was the first to recover his vision, cursing himself, for he had brought shades with him for this very reason. Unlocking a semblance was tricky, usually put in the right situation, and or under pressure, could result in the person acting on instincts that even they had no idea they had. Unfortunately in this scenario it could have gone both ways. Taking a look at the screen to try and observe the arena from the Behemoth's point of view, he discovered that the screen had went black, and a red rectangle in the center of the screen read : **SIGNAL LOST.**

"Little Help?" India grunted from under the table, snapping Tai Yang back into action. The blond reached under the table and with little effort, lifted the computer tower back up straight, eliciting a groan of relief from India.

"Ugggh! Thank You!" She gasped as he helped her back up to her feet.

"You alright?"

India coughed and waved in front of her face, with a scrunched up expression.

"Yep. I'm good," she coughed. "I think that we can all agree that that was out of control."

Tai Yang grunted in agreement, as Ms. Ursula uttered her first words since the blast.

"God dammit!" she growled as she began to pick up wires and cords and skillfully reconnecting them to different ports and outlets .

"Great she still alive…" India dully muttered under her breath.

"It'll take more that a few pretty lights and an explosion to put me down Ms. Jones." Ms. Ursula stated matter-of-factly causing a small squeak to come from the younger woman. Say what you will about grouchy old ladies, but make sure they don't have the hearing of a bat first.

As Ms. Ursula commissioned India to assist her with fixing the exam control, Tao Long looked round the arena at the carnage their latest student managed to dish out.

The arena was filled with a moderately thick white smoke and littered with robots, the metal bodies sprawled out in various positions and places. It smelled entirely of smoke and motor oil. Coughing could be heard from various points round the arena, which he could only assume were his eldest, his youngest, and Aurum. Looking around further he noticed the arm of the Atlesian Knight Aurum had used as a blunt force weapon against the behemoth had been hastily and carelessly thrown to the side near the leg of the behemoth. The Atlesian Behemoth had been brought to its knees with a heavy clang. The area where its head should've been, or previously was, smoked and sparked. Tai Yang's eyes trailed down to where Aurum had laid- holy shit he was still there!

"Aurum!" Tai Yang shouted, vaulting over the podium table, and landing on the smoky arena below with a loud thud.

Running over to the boy, Tai Yang kicked the crook of the Atlesian Behemoth's knee, causing the deactivated robot to crumple, and fall backwards by its own dead weight with a loud clang, so both

he and Aurum were not at risk of it toppling over on them.

When Tai Yang made it around the robotic behemoth, he saw in person the damage that had been inflicted upon the latest evaluation participant.

Aurum's crisp black shirt was now scorched in several areas, holes had been burned along several areas of the shirt as well. His once white coat was now a pile of ash, from the pectorals down, and what did survive his fiery semblance was now browned in several areas, well where it wasn't ripped or completely burnt anyway.

Tai Yang knelt beside the boy, as his clothes were the least of his worries, the boy did not look good at all. His right eye had been blackened and there was a cut on the left side of his bottom lip. Blood and strangely enough smoke came from his lips in specks and plumes as he wretched himself coughing. His breathing was raspy and dry as he clutched at his throat and ribs where he was punched by the behemoth in an attempt to soothe the pains he was enduring.

Tai Yang was simply amazed at the injuries he had sustained. While it was normal to get injured during evaluation, from light scratches, to even a broken bone one time, This year, Aurum, was the worst injured he'd seen. He had to get him out of here, especially now that he noticed the two white ears sticking out from the top of his head.

"Hang on kid." Tai Yang ordered.

The smoke was thick enough to mask his detailed features but when he tried to lift Aurum by himself, he he hoarsely cried out in pain. The door of opportunity was closing, and Tao Long had to act fast.

"Hey, T!" India called from the podium. "Is the kid OK?"

Tai Yang froze momentarily as she called him in fear that she would come over as well.

"No! I mean YES!" he called back, before face palming quickly to collect his thoughts as he heard the podium shuffling.

"I mean I gonna have to get some help with this…" He called back.

"Sunny D!" he called his eldest daughter by one of his many nicknames for her, before India could come over to let India know she was not needed.

As he saw her silhouetted form getting closer through the smoke, and in hindsight he realized that he probably should have covered the boy up. While they had known him and his mother, his neither of his daughters knew anymore than his mother would share. However it was too late, for his eldest, Yang, had already closed the distance before he could prepare anything to cover him up.

His eldest was blonde like him, except while he would wrap up his golden locks, in a messy ponytail, or bun to look somewhat professional for his job as a teacher, but his daughter was not a teacher, and let all her hair hang down. It had grown exceptionally long since last year, down past her shoulders to her elbows. She wore her black leather jacket, and a tank top that matched her hair color, with black jeans that matched her black combat boots. Like her father she had lilac eyes and a go get'em attitude when not serious, which came rare. The absolute seriousness of course. This of course was one of those moments.

"Hey, Dad so you need me to-…" Yang trailed off as she saw the boy in the state he was in. Immediately she dropped into a crouch on the opposite side of the boy getting a good look at what they were dealing with. Tao Long had done his best to cover the boy up, but unfortonatley for him it was only a matter of time before his daughter noticed.

"Don't panic Sunny," Tai yang told his daughter as she looked at the damage done to the boy's body and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Look at me," he said softly.

Yang didnt move as she took in all the blood and bruises that were left on the boys face and body.

"HEY," he demanded softly but sternly, snapping his fingers to jolt her from her frozen position and meet her fathers eyes.

"He is hurt badly. I'd let you take him but this is gonna be a two man job, he is to injured to be handled by one person." he explained.

Aurum gasped as wheezed as he began another bout of coughing, more flecks of blood comming from his bloodied lips and out onto his face.

From his peripheral vision Tai Yang could the outline of what should have been a regular belt begin to soften and shift under the boys charred shirt.

 _Maybe she won't notice,_ he thought as he looked at Yang who was readying herself to lift up the injured boy on his count.

"One. Two. Three!" he counted as they began to work their way under the boys back in order to lift him like a makeshift gurrney.

The boy let out a dry raspy groan of pain as they lifted him, and Tai Yang could see the "belt" loosening very fast.

 _Oh sweet Oum please dont let her-_ ,

Yang let out another gasp, along with a "What the?" then froze again.

"He's a… Aurum's a…. FAUN-"

"SSSSSH!" Tai Yang shushed her sternly and quietly before she could raise her voice any louder. The smoke was clearing fast and the boy's tail had now completely slide free of his belt loops and dangled in the air limply against Yang's left hand.

Using one arm to support the side he was carrying, Tai Yang gingerly reached down to recover the boy's loose appendage, and quickly slid it underneath his shirt as he confronted his daughter about the matter.

"OK, yes he is, but please try to look past this, at least for now. I don't know what type of influence or thinking your friends have on you about the faunus people, but please, this was your friend at one point, and your sisters friend too. I dont know how your thinking has changed if it has, and I wont try to change your wa of thinking, but Yang, I need your help to ge him to the infirmary without seriously hurting him."Tai Yang pleaded with his daughter as she held up the boy, hoping that she wouldn't do anything drastic like pull away and drop him.

Yang once again stared down at the faunus, years of time spent together seeming to come flooding back to her in a new light. She made a mental note to ponder it later. She would help Aurum. Only one matter gave her pause currently.

Looking at Tai Yang, she asked, "What do we tell Ruby?"

This time it was Tai Yang's turn to freeze. He hadn't thought of that. While Ruby did cause the boy to lose focus, it was an accident, as she was too excited to see him. He honestly didnt know what to do. As far as friends went, Aurum was the only one Ruby had made, but since Tai Yang was so close to Aurum's mother, it was sort of a default situation that they got along. He wasnt sure how Ruby would react, and honestly he didnt want to find out right this moment.

"We keep her in the dark for now. I don't know how she will react and I don't wanna find right now."

Yang nodded, she hated to lie to her baby sister but this was a serious moment, and it was probably for the best.

As the two blondes made their way to the gymnasium exit, they came acrossed the young girl in question. Her silohetted from hunched over and coughing by the door. The sound of crying got louder as they approached, and soon enough the silohette raised it's head when it heard them approach through the smoky gym, and with a loud zip the girl had made it from the gym door to right infront of the trio in the blink of an eye. 

"Aurum!" She cried, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed against the trio. Her red cloak covering most of her body , produced a small bandaged arm, (From her own evaluation exam) and grabbed her fathers shirt tightly as she buried her face into it.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I swear! I didn't mean to!" she sobbed.

Tai Yang managed to once again support his side of the boy's body with one arm as he used the other to console his youngest.

" Hey Rubes," He told her rubbing small circles on her back to console her as he pulled her close for a quick embrace. Breaking from the hug he put his hand on her chin and tilted her head up so she could look at him. "We going to take him to the infirmary, get him all stitched up ok?"

"I'll come with you!" she sniffled,rubbing her eyes with her uninjured arm and about to attempt sharing the boys weight between the three of them, causing Yang to look at her father and quietly clear her throat.

Tai Yang had already formed a plan of how he was going to break the ice to his daughters about their old friend, and one of them had already learned a best kept secret to soon. Tai Yang didnt need both of them learning to soon.

"Sorry Rosebud," he told her quickly but gently pushing her back. "We need to get him there quickly. But I need somebody to be strong enough to help the others in their evaluations. OK?"

A fresh pair of tears threatened to run from her eyes, but Ruby trying so hard to prove herself like always, quickly wiped at her eyes with her uninjured hand and puffed out her chest a little.

"OK."

"There's by little Rosebud."

…..

 **Ok. I had to break up the chapter because I thought it was to long. I really want to move past this sequence in the story so i think I'm gonna post the other have after this.**

 **I hope it all makes sense still.**

 **Take it easy.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello Oomans.**

 **I Had to break the last chapter from this one because i thought it would be to long. I initally wanted to finish this sequence a long time a go but unfortonately life has other plans. I could have gotten this chapter out to you earlier but yeasterday was my birthday.**

 **I thank you all for sticking with me through this, Let me know how you think this story is progressing, I have gotten a lot of messages, like how do Ruby and Yang know this Faunus, what the hell is a Porcelain Mask have to do with anything, when will we see werewolves and stuff like that.**

 **It's all coming I assure you.**

 **I think that you all may have problems with my talking of Chararcters like Sheera and Garrett, and not telling you more so you will meet them don't worry.**

 **Anyway I love you all, thanks for sticking with me, Happy Birthday to me, and lets do this.**

… **..**

The hallway was silent, save for the clicking echo of father and daughter's hurried boots, their pants of exhaustion, and the dry groans and coughs of the injured faunus they carried every now and then.

The quiet to Tai Yang, became unbareable. He needed confront both daughters about this, but then he realised it could be easier if Yang was already aware of it, so that she could help soften the blow with her younger sister.

Finally he broke the silence.

"You seem to be taking this well." was the first thing he could think of off the top of his head, and he immediately regretted putting his daughter on the spot like that.

However, Yang seemed to be holding herself together quite well, and with out even looking responded. "I'm keeping it together."

"What do you mean?"he asked.

"It's just unbelievable that all this time…" she trailed off to herself.

"Look," He sighed as they turned right at the split at the end of the hall. "I don't know what your friends are telling you about the faunus, the Fang, them in general, but just want you to know that-"

"Dad," Yang stopped him as they continued down the hall. "I understand, but I'm fine with it. Really."

Tai Yang blinked at her as she continued to look straight ahead. This was certainly a change of pace, from a few minutes earlier.

"You are?" he asked arching a blonde eyebrow at the younger blonde pressing her to elaborate. after waiting for Aurum to finish another bloody fit of wheezing coughs, Yang spoke up, this time meeting her father's eyes.

"Really?" He asked because he himself wasn't sure how or why his daughter was simply ok, she did find out that one of her oldest friends had been lying to her, her entire life.

"I understand you are skeptical since all-" she corrected herself with a downward look at the latest delivery to the medical bay. "most of my friends a human, and they don't exactly get along with Faunus. But I am not my friends, and I'm not going to turn my back on one of my oldest friends just because of something he had no control over."

Yang could feel her father's gaze on her for several seconds as they continued to walk, while true in those few seconds she first saw him for what he truly was, she was skeptical, maybe even angry, she recalled all the times that her friends had blamed or curse faunus for what they were or who they were, and for some reason, but she had never been one to put her own opinion, good or bad, in that topic. However after the first few moments of realization passed, she remembered everything that they did when they were little. All those moments they spent, Her, Aurum, and eventually Ruby, when she was born.

She soon realized that she couldn't hate him. She had grown to attached, and so had her baby sister. But with all the time she had spent with her friends, Yang hoped that they hadn't left to much of a lasting impression on her with their beliefs on her sisters neutral out look on the faunus people. The poor girl was still young and naive, but her socially awkward tendencies, when Yang wasn't around or without something to do like to keep her busy, usually left her with a desire for companionship. Yang had discovered that many people will do many things to not feel lonely or like an outcast, even if that means changing her way of thinking just to fit in with the crowds.

Yang was pulled from her thoughts when the double doors to the medical bay were pushed open by Tai Yang. It was a large room with several gurney like beds for the injured to be laid in.

Each one had a rack on the ceiling overhead to pull a curtain around the beds for privacy, and a room to work in for the medics. Near the far left corner of the room, one curtain had been pulled around the room, and two silhouetted figures were the only ones in the infirmary.

"-OK, put some ice on that and you should be fine," a feminine voice of one of the silhouettes told the other.

"Yo River!" Tai Yang called out to standing silhouetted figure. "We need your help fast!"

Out from the makeshift room came a redheaded woman with a smile on her face. Dr. River Song. Gallefrey was her name. She had an athletic build and a height of around 5'10. Dressed in blue green scrubs and a white apron was the red curly hair, and a smile on her face. Tai Yang was relieved to see that she was working today instead of other medics, While River was one to speak her mind (her bubbly, ecentric, mind), about her manypatients, she was not one to turn away anyone, and actually did an above average job fixing up the few faunus students who were injured in practices and mock fights and battles.

"Tai Yang!" She smiled, her eyes lighting up as at the sight of her friend. "What brings you to my neck of the woods?" she asked, pulling off the pair of latex gloves she was wearing and quickly tossed them in the direction of a nearby waste bin. When only one of the two made hit its destination, she made a move to retreive the glove, but then with a small shrug and a smaller "meh" turned her attention back to the trio.

As if on que, Aurum let loose another bout of wheezing, and gurgling coughs, before hoarsly groaning in pain.

"I'll give you three guesses but the other two don't count."

River simply nodded and gestured with her head to set the boy down on an examination table.

As Tai Yang and his daughter set down Dr. Gallifrey's latest patient as she came over and turned on the overhead light above the table.

"What happened to him!" River whistled as she pulled out a metal cylinder from her apron.

"looks like he lost a fight with an ursa!"

"Close but no cigar" Tai Yang mumbled.

"Evaluation?" she asked as she fiddled with the metal device.

"Ursula brought out the behemoth." Tai Yang backing himself and his daughter away slightly and giving River more room to work.

Yang watched as Dr. Gallefrey looked over her latest patient, that cylinder she produced shot a ray of green light from it as she ran the tube up and down the length of the wheezing boy. While she knew now wasnt the time, she smiled.

She had always thought that Dr. Gallefrey's weapon was cool because it could be used from friends and enemies. From what she gathered, Dr. Gallefrey's semblance and weapon were both powered by some kind of green colored dust, and when shown upon friends could tell her their weak points so she could use her medical expertise to heal them. She supposed it also worked for enemies that way, but the as soon as she finished scanning it, she could turn the ray into a sword, and with medical precision, slice and dice her enemies. The weapon had an awesome name "Weeping angel, or Siren's song" she couldn't remember because the bubbly woman went back and forth between the two. But one thing was certain, Ruby's name for it when she was little, "the screwdriver" due to the shape; stuck.

ran her "screwdriver" over the boy, her eyes turning as green as the screwdriver's ray of light as she looked the boy over.

"Impressive," she mused, to herself more than anyone else in the makeshift room, "a Atlesian Behemoth punch to the face like that? WIthout Aura protection? How is his face not shattered?"

The statement make Yang gulp, then sigh with relief.

The bubbly doctor, then reached for the hood covering his ears, much to Yang's protest, but flipped it back before she could even get a word out, and got an eye full of the boys white and black hair and ears. Yang bit her lip, as the older woman paused momentarily. Dr, Gallefrey was nice enough but, to humans as far as she saw, and Aurum was certainly not human. Her surprise was obvious as Dr. Gallefrey's expression did not change whatsoever. The energetic smile still upon her face.

"Oh. I suppose that's how." She merely shrugged. before pulling down a flat rectangular see through screen.. On it the boys heart rate appeared in the left top corner, as the screen showed an image of Aurum laying on the examination table. The doctor then moved to put on a fresh pair of gloves, and then a tray of utensils on wheels, she moved to the side of the examination table.

"What do you mean that's how?" Yang asked, curiuosly. While she was glad that boy was for the most part unharmed from the evaluation, she was curious as to how he had not at least cracked a rib, when he sould have puncture a lung from a blow like that without any Aura protection.

"Well it's been scientifically proven, -although they may not like to talk about it much-," River stated as a side thought, "that while similar, Faunus have a slightly stronger skeletal structure than humans."

"Really?" Tai Yang asked looking at thier patient. "I haven't heard anything about that."

"Yeah, Because they don't like to talk about it much." River said matter-of-factly as she sterilzed the most used utensils in the nearby sink.

"But, yeah, Faunus have tougher and surprisingly more flexible bones than humans, at least the feline Faunus do. If you need marrow replacement, a Faunus donor could see that you never need another again. They also have tougher teeth, too." River said, rambilng as she got out gauze and medical tape.

"I bet he is one of those faunus who can eat bones. You ever seen that before? I have! It's like here we have a rib from barbeque, then CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH! Gulp! Friggin awesome."

RIver paused for a moment and turned around to face the two Blondes who stared at the weird doctor as she rambled on about bone eating faunus. They were only snapped from their seperate pondering when the doctor paused, and snapped her head in there direction.

"Why is his shirt still on?" she asked as if it was the most normal thing in the world before turning back around.

"Huh?"

"What? You expect me to fix 'em him up through his clothes?" RIver asked, without looking back at the father and daughter.

"I'm good, but not that good." the doctor chuckled, as Tai Yang rolled his eyes. For a doctor, she doesn't really tell anyone what she needed them to do, like a normal one would. She just expected you to do it automatically. Well, he supposed that was fair, since she could see the problem already, it should be natural to reveal the afflicted area.

Tai Yang went to work slowly taking off the charred shirt as Yang gently(as she could anyway) lift the unconscious faunus who let out soft pained groans every now and again.

"So is this how you're spending the week? I thought that the third years get a few more weeks off." River asked the younger blonde.

It was true, being a third years get two months off even after the school year starts, however this was her baby sisters first year, and Yang's last, so she was gonna be there for all of it.

"We do." she replied turning her head away from the faunus she was holding to face the doctor.

"But I wanted to be here for my little sister, plus. we dont do any actual work. We get to watch the first years and control the battle bots for the first few months. I'm behind to get volunteer hours -"

"Behind?" Tai Yang snorted as he finally worked the charred shirt from the boys body..

"Shut up." she whined to her father. So she was a lot behind. Working hard was… well, Hard. Being lazy… that was the life. Sue Her. She could have left anytime after her baby sister's evaluation exam yesterday, but when she heard Aurum was coming back to Patch. The opportunity to be the first to greet him was too good to pass up.

"Certainly is one hell of a greet- WHOA!" Yang exclaimed as she saw a her friend shirtless. It wasn't the toned abdominal muscles that she was looking at (hers were bigger anyway). It wasn't the large reddish purple bruise the size of her forearm on his ribs, as grotesquely cool as it was. No What she was looking at was the fact that his torso, from his spine to his abdominal muscles, was completely covered in stripes like tattoos!

River, who was finally finished with sterilising her utensils, lit up at the sight.

"Wow!" she mused before going over to the see through screen before shooing both Yang and Tai Yang out of the frame view before turning it on.

"That is one wicked bruise right there! And I have seen plenty!"

Yang could just stare at the strange woman as she said this, completely ignoring the tattoos.

"Are you really missing the fact that he has tat-"

"Hang on…" River interrupted, pausing to stare at the unconcious boy.

Tai Yang rolled his eyes again. River was a little slow at times when it came to something serious, she was just a generally happy person. She at times reminded him of his youngest daughter at times.

"Why is that still on?" River demanded, pointing towards the charred tattered, arm sleeve that was hanging by literal threads around the boy's arm.

Facepalming from the initial shock of her ignorance to the obvious. Yang hurriedly did what she asked, and removed the sleeve.

Tai Yang gulped quietly. Sheera, had told him the reason why her son wore that sleeve, but he was almost certain that he couldn't pull off the same explanation right now. Nor would his daughter be willing to listen if he could pull one off at all.

He figured he was going to leave all the explaining about Tiger Faunus markings, to the actual Tiger Faunus, when she asked to talk to all of them later on today. But it seemed nothing was going to plan, well partially anyway.

Another gasp of initial shock was heard, then the audible sound of Yang covering her mouth with her free hand as she looked down at what was before her.

The entire left arm was "tattooed" from the shoulder, all the way to the wrist. It was an intricate tribal like design of a tattoo. A spiral began at the center of his shoulder, then expanded till it covered the top of the arm. The bicep down, was wrapped in a large black line, trailing around the arm, and ending in a zig zag formation that gave the impression of teeth.

Tai Yang was not as shocked as his daughter was. The zigzags on the forearm were new from what he could tell. Must come with age. He was used to this amount of ehat a human would call "abnormal" however his daughters did not know about stripes, ears, or a tail, so this was probably a lot to take in right now.

"What have you done to yourself Ari?" Yang wondered aloud behind her hand as she continued to stare in awe at the stripes that wrapped round his rib cage.

"Got himself wrecked, is what he's done." Dr. Gallefrey said as the monitor she was looking through beeped and whirred as she fiddled with it.

"He's only a kid. Ruby's age." Yang stated aloud. Her mind began to race about what could have been happening in Vacuo, mainly the idea of gangs were running though her head currently. Pretty out there scenario but this was a worst case scenario in a first time experience on a old friend. So forgive her for being skeptical.

"That how old they usually are when they start out." Dr. Gallefrey said absent mindedly. Pulling Yang from her remark was to go to TaI Yang, but Yang percived it differently, just now being back in the conversation.

River's remeark just about sent Yang over the edge. She knew the doctor to be calm and collected, and strangely enough, at the same time, bubbly and enegetic, but how calm she was being about this was not cool to her at all. The thoughts of how Aurum got the tattoos were not helping at all either.

"How can you just smile about this?" She raised her voice at the doctor. River looked at Tai Yang who was standing next to her, looking through the screen with her, who merely shrugged in her direction.

"Well, no major injuries, just a few-"

"I'm talking about those!" Yang pointed at the "tattoo" designs that littered the boy's torso and arm.

His bruise?" she asked innocently

"No the tattoos you- ugggh!" She groaned in frustration at the doctors mock obliviousness to the discovery.

"What tattoos?" the doctor asked with a smile.

Yang was just about done with her, before her father finally stepped in, after remaining quiet for sometime.

"You've had your fun, River."

"Says you," the doctor said before making a face at the older Xiao Long.

A look from Tai Yang finally made her relent in teasing the girl.

"It's her own fault, she didnt hear a word I said." the doctor reasoned, to no avail.

"Fiiiiiine." the bubbly doctor groaned playfully motioning Yang over to the screen. "Check this out."

Yang walked around to the screen that the doctor and her father both peered through. With a press of a button on the screen, bright wave of blue slide to the left from the right of the screen the screen that showed the tattooed faunus, highlighting his body in a lighter shade of blue as it passed, before its scan was completed.

"OK, first off what am I supposed to be seeing?" Yang asked, her eyes darting left and right trying to find something in the scanner.

"This is a shrapnel scanner," River replied to the girl as she began to clean the tiger faunus cuts on his face. "There is a scientific name for it but I haven't bothered learning it. We've used this many times on you sweetie. This scanner is able to locate foreign bodies in your body, so we can extract easily."

Yang did actually recall several times River fiddling with that monitor be before having to take someone's lucky bullet out of her arm or leg many times. While they did use rubber bullets in training and practice against other students and they would have aura to protect themselves, it wasn't rare that one would get lucky and- well do what bullets do best. Bury into someone.

"Ok... " Yang said, nodding slowly. "But what does that have to -"

"Tattoo ink, falls under "foreign body" ." River interrupted as she bent over the boy wrapping his dressed black eye in gauze round his head, as Tai Yang held his head.

"Wait so what are you saying River?" Tai Yang said as he slowly let the boys, newly wrapped head down on the table again.

"I'm saying that- hold him down please-" She told the two blondes as she moved to work on the large bruise on his striped covered ribs. She continued when the two blondes gently but firmly placed their hands on the boy's legs and torso. "-that if this was a foreign body it would flash bright orange on the scanner. These-" Dr. Gallefrey said pointing at the stripes that littered the unconscious boys face, arm, and torso, " -there organic."

Yang stared at the two older people in to room, trying to wrap her head around what was going on.

"What are you saying?" she finally managed.

"Yang," Tai yang said putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Those aren't tattoos. He was born with them."

THis was certainly a lot for Yang to take in all at once. He couldn't have been born that way could he? But the Tatto- she didnt even know what to call them, were so precise, the looked nothing like birth marks, seeing as how the completely contrasted his skin.

However she kept having to remind herself that Aurum wasnt human. So she shouldnt judge for something she couldn't explain.

She watched as Dr. Gallefrey and her father talked amongst themselves as they patched the boy up.

' _That honestly would explain alot,"_ Yang thought to herself.

Wearing hats all the time, long sleeved shirts, and Sheera never letting him get into their pool was pretty weird at the time. She had thought like Ruby, Aurum was nnaturally cold and needed something warm like the hoodie she always wore, when she had to wash her cloak, or on rare occasions decided to go somewhere without it. The swimming thing, she though he just didn't know how to swim. her little sister always stayed in the pool where she cold stand up in the water anyway because her swimming skills weren't that great. Well it was nice to know that none of those were the reason.

They could hang out in the pool, and all sorts of other stuff.

" _If Ruby apporves of what he is,"_ said a voice in the back of her mind. Yang sighed. sometimes it sucked being right.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Dr. Gallifrey finally broke the mostly silent room, save for the steady beating heart monitor.

"Hang on a tick," the doctor exclaimed, as she pulled her screwdriver from her belt again, and began to run it up and down Aurum. She stopped on his neck, her eyes glowing as green as the light from her screwdriver.

The buzzing noise of her weapon filled the makeshift room, as Tai Yang and Yang held their breaths. Not only to let the doctor work, but if she found something that could be worse than a few scrapes, it would technically be Ruby's fault.

"What happened Tai Yang?" the doctor asked as she pulled the overhead light down to the unconcious boys face, and pulled his mouth open.

"His throat his covered in burns." the doctor stated in awe at the sight.

Tai Yang spoke breaking the few seconds of the heart monitor.

"He breathed… fire."

"I can see that now," the doctor said, her eyes still glowing green as she angled the boys head to get a better look. Her eyes pulsed an even brighter green then dimmed as she exclaimed at her find.

"OH YEA. I can see it now. Suprisingly his throat only has minor burns, but its his vocal cords that are the problem."

Yang and Tai Yang both rushed over, to either of the doctors sides, their heads filled with questions, but their teeth biting their tongues waiting for the worst.

The joy in the doctor's voice was now replaced with utmost seriousness.

"If we don't act now, he probably won't be able to talk again." she muttered to herself more than everyone else in the room.

Both blondes swallowed at the news.

It was Tai Yang who for a third time, broke the ice.

"What can we do?"

The doctor was pacing round the available space of the room, muttering to herself, her eyes flashing a bright green every now and again.

"I got it! HA! HAA!" She exclaimed rushing out the makeshift room. Yang ment to follow the doctor, but after hearing a lot of crashing and breaking from beyond the curtain, she decided against it.

She began to pet her hair nervously. What if Aurum does lose his ablity to speak? We;; they could always still talk thanks to her Qrows teachings but-No! No. She couldn't think like that. She had to remain optimistic. Before the doubt in her began to build once more, the doctor burst through the curtain again with a small bottle, and a long metal rod with a q-tip on it.

Yang sighed in relief to the doctor's change in mood, the muttering had stopped but her brisk pace however had not.

The doctor put the bottle next to the weezing Faunus' head and placed the Q-tip on the end of the rod.

"Stand by his sides," she ordered, To Which they complied.

No one noticed the heart monitor spiked slightly, as the two blondes moved to thier designated locations.

"I gotta tell you one thing," Tai Yang said "the kid can take a beating that's for sure."

"Yes," the doctor responded, " The fact that there is no long term damage here is nothing short of a miracle."

Yang watched as Aurum's tiger ears began to twitch in the direction of voices as the adults talked, and couldn't help but smile.

They looked so fluffly and soft. She began to wonder how they felt, as she grinned every twitch they made listening.

This changed everything, not her outlook on the boy, they fun the three of them could have. The pranks she and Ruby pulled could pay off better now that she had a better look out. Usually when out pulling on of their pranks Ruby was probably one of the WORST scouts ever. If the target in question was coming, Ruby would hop on one foot to the next, sputtering out something incomprehensible, and then disapear into a poof of rose petals leaving Yang around three seconds to hide, if she even got that. With the his Tiger ears Aurum could hear thier targets coming from farther away. Plus Qrow was starting to catch on to their pranks, the easy target he was.

"I like his ears." She stated aloud causing the adults in the room to stop their conversation, the only noise being the elevated heart rate on the monitor sounding in the room.

"See!?" She asked, causing his ears to snap in her direction as she came over closer to the table.

"What Part of that is not awesome!"

The doctor began to dip the rod into the small bottle. "Awesome or not sweetheart this needs to be done and needs to be done _NOW._ " she replied as she stirred her utensil in the bottle.

Aurum seemed to be regaining consciousness as the heart rate monitor indicated with a more rapid beeping. he tried to sit up, but Tai Yang quickly pushed him back down with a gentle hand, much to the doctor's approval.

"Don't struggle kid." Tai Yang told the faunus causing Yang to look up at him. "You'll just make it worse on all of us."

What was her father in the Mafia or something? That sounded really creepy to her at least.

"Wording Dad."

The pinging of the heart monitor started to increase as the wheezing Faunus began to try and move more. Aurum lifted his head slightly and looked in Tai Yang's direction.

"Tai….Yang?" The boy managed to gasp out before going into another bloody fit of coughing. and dropped his head back on the winced as the bandaged part on his head hit the table.

"Oh yea he took it deep." Yang mused, at least happy that her friend was starting to move about again.

"Don't let him talk." The doctor chastised the two blondes. "The last thing we want is to make things worse."

"How long till he can talk again, without making things worse?" Tai Yang asked.

"Until his air passage fully recovers…" The doctor mused thoughtfully. "I'd give it three months."

"Now keep your hands on him," she ordered holding the metal rod. "If he thrashes too much when I do this, he might probably break his ribs.

"Whaa-ack!" Aurum coughed before Dr. Gallifrey placed a hand on his chest steadying him, as flecks of blood came up from his throat again.

"Uh-Uh-Uhhh," the doctor said wagging a finger of her free hand at the boy as if he were a child.

"I see your suffering darling,' she said as she hefted the metal rod closer towards the injured faunus' head.

Yang didnt know if Dr. Gallefrey was being funny, or if she was just trying to soothe the boy and it came out wrong, but no matter how many times she played this in her head, it always seemed to have words like "creepy" or "dark" or even "a little murder-y" when the doctor said this to the faunus.

"but dont worry, Well put you out of your misery."

Aurum's thought were alligned with hers as his unconciousness seemed to fall of him like a second skin. The heart monitor was going crazy, as Aurum's wheezing began to increase in pace. The first thing Yang noticed was his eye, the whites of his eyes were a dark onyx, illuminating the blue and gold of his pupil- wait. It wasnt even a pupil anymore. Aurum's "pupil was now long, and slitted, like a cats. It seemed animalistic, beastly, and frightened.

Probably for good reason, she supposed. Looking back, she came to realise that if she were unconcious and heard the choice of words her father and the doctor used, while holding her down to a table, she would probably freak out too. It probably didnt make it better that they were human. With all the hate crimes between species, many of which resulting in faunus being found dead days after they disappeared, it was probably not the best manner of speech either adult should've used.

The injured faunus wasted no time, trying to escape after the slitted eye, came into focus on the long metal rod. Disoreinted and scared, her friend powerfully bucked his hips in an adrenaline fueled fear, and desire for self preservation. Naturally none of the other three in the room were expecting him to be able to move, let alone work his torso after such an injury sustained, but the panic was still in the room on both sides.

"WHOA! HOLD HIM! HOLD HIM!" the doctor commanded loudly as she moved the rod, and bottle, just before his head collided with them.

Yang and her father snapped into action, Yang quickly grabbed the boy by the boot covered ankle and, and his gloved wrist, and pushed down; while her father, grabbed the other ankle and pressed a firm hand on the center of his chest, mindful of the new bandages.

Aurum began to flail his free hand around, trying to get Tai Yang off of him. Until the table activated.

Yang stopped her attempts at telling her friend to calm down, and jumped back off the boy as the leather straps flew from several points on the table and strapped the faunus' legs and arm to the table.

The tables in the medical bay were specially designed; monitoring the heart rate of the patient, when the heart rate became to erratic, a mechanism shot forth restraining straps that would lock down a patient, having a seizure for example. It was a device that could restrain a huntsman in pain, and would save both the huntsman and the doctor digging a bullet or shrapnel from a part of the body. With many huntsman's strength, this device could protect the doctor's as they worked, and keep the huntsman still to the doctors didnt knock an instrument into something important.

Aurum however did not know its purpose, and he did not like his new bonds one bit.

Aurum became more desperate in his attempts to escape, raspy tiger like roars and snarls came from the boys throat as he tried to deter the people he didnt know were trying to help.

"- Aurum look at me! LISTEN!" Tai Yang said as he battled with the Faunus' free hand trying to restrain it and hold it to his side.

"We aren't going to hurt you we just want to-"

 **SHINK!**

"Auuugh!" Tai Yang cried, his eyes now flashing blood red, as Aurum sank his black ivory claws into the man's forearm.

Suprisingly to both women, Tai Yang managed to keep his composure, with the intruding digits, and spoke slowly and calmly as someone could with knife like fingers in their forearm.

Aurum finally stopped struggling for the most part, but kept his claws in Tai Yang, his fangs bared, and a low baritone snarl, continuously emminating from his throat. His eye never left Tai Yang's direction. Both women in the room kept quiet as the man spoke, not wanting to make things worse.

"You were hurt pretty bad." Tai Yang hissed.

"We had to get you **owwwt** of there," he struggled out to the faunus over his snarl.

"I promise, no one else **knows** your secret- **besiiides uss**! " this made the snarling grow softer. Tai Yang began to speak more clearly as he felt the boy's claws retract slightly. He felt blood begin to run down his forearm but paid it no mind, a little bit of Aura and it would be like nothing happened anyway.

"This is my daughter Yang," Tai Yang began gesturing with is head towards Yang, who with a small smile waved.

"Hey Ari," she greeted, "I wanted to be the first to welcome you back but not like this."

She half heartedly laughed, scratching the back of her head. She saw Aurum wince, and squeeze his eue shut as if having a brain freeze. Then she saw something when his eye met hers.

She saw the look in his eyes, the awareness of his situation, the fear that still tugged at him. the look wasnt reassured. It wasnt warm. It was still scared. Foregin, as if he were looking at a complete stranger.

Whats wrong? Maybe he hit his head harder than she thought? But wouldnt the doctor have picked up a concussion while she scanned him earlier?

Tai Yang saw the exchange between the two and quickly continued with introductions.

"And this is the woman who has been treating your wounds. Dr. Gallefrey."

"dR. wHo?" The boy managed to croak out before going into another fit of coughing.

The doctor on the other hand simply, and happily mumbled, "18".

Stupid of course but the game she had going was simply amusing. Her name was so difficult to pronounce on the first try, and a lot of people wake up from unconciousness from her medical bay. So to keep things interesting she kept a list of how many people refered to her by her unofficial nickname.

Tai Yang shot her a look to which he recieived a shrug before he continued.

"We want to help you. I know you must not have the best view of humans with everything going on right now, but you Have to Trust us. OK?"

Best view of humans? What was her father talking about? Aurum havd been nothing but kind to her, her father, her sister, and her uncle. What is he going on about? She'd ask later. Right now they had to calm the disoreiented faunus.

Aurum's eye darted between the people that stood over him. His breathing at a heaving pace as he weighed his options. Yang wanted nothing more to give her friend a hug, when he squeezed his eye shut causing a tear to roll from it as he took a deep breath, and then retracted his claws completely, and placed his hand to his side eith the strange way he was acting, she supposed that now wouldn't be the best time.

The doctor briefed him, on how he burned is throat and how he could loose his ablity to speak if he tried to talk until it was completely healed. Aurum listened intently, though he still remained tense and aware of everything the trio did, his wary eye darting to look at each small movement they made. Finally the doctor explained what the rod was for.

"This is a mixture of burn salve, pain killers, the tiniest bit of sleeping pill," she explained holding the bottle. "It would be better to recover when your sleeping. You dont swallow as much."

"I need this," She held up the q-tip on the rod, "to completely coat your throat in it."

The boy seemed alarmed, but once again nodded.

"You are a strong boy," The doctor said seriously, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Well begin whe you are ready."

Aurum took a deep breath and almost immediatly, though reluctantly, opened his mouth.

Yang watched how brave her friend was. This was something that she (as much as she hated to admit it) would never do (But the again she didnt think she would be breathing fire anytime soon, so she wouldn't have to worry about this happening) . But then the question came into her mind :

"Why a metal rod with q-tip at the end? She had seen several long wooden q-tips in the doctor's office, so why does Aurum need this one? Would'nt a wooden one be easier.

She shuddered as Aurum loudly gagged as the rod went down his throat. His eye squeezed shut once more as the claws on both his hands came out as he entire body tried to keep itself from thrashing. He could not however keep his jaws from clamping down on the metal rod as the doctor worked, saying quick words of encouragement as she continued her painful-to-watch work.

"Aaaaaaand Done!" The doctor finally finished. pulling the rod out, and earning one final gag form the boy.

Yang got her answer when the doctor held up the nasty dirty metal rod, bent in several placed from Aurum's teeth.

After several words of congradulation on keeping with the doctor through the procedure, and another warning of no speaking until further notice, Aurum was soon notified by TaI Yang that his motherwas to be at the school in a few minutes. After Aurum was too tired to retreive the removed articles of clothing, Tai Yang said they could get them to him later that evening, reassuring the boy, however Tai Yang became uneasy as it was Yang who jumped at the chance to help the boy out to the his mother.

With an oddly tense arm draped over her shoulders she walked her friend out to the front of Signal.

"I'm so glad that your back!" she talked excitedly in a one sided conversation with her friend, who sluggishly(probably due to the sleeping pill in the mixture) limped with her towards the entrance. She began to excidedly lose herself to her own voice, asking questions about Vacuo and how he spent his time there, even though she knew he couldn't respond yet.

The droning of her voice was finally cut off, by the appearance of a orange Corvette Stingray.

"Hey Sheera!" Yang greeted her friends mother. Yang couldn't help but notice that Sheera was looking strange as well, instead of a warm smile like when she was younger, She received a look of worry. Possibly due to the missing articles of clothing. Or that his Faunus appendaged were showing.

"Sorry about his clothes!" Another half hearted laugh leaving the girl as Sheera had yet to remove the look of worry, or even speak a word yet.

Sheera opened the passenger door from the inside, making it easier for Aurum to make it from the sidewalk to her car, quickly for whatever reason.

Yang understood the woman's fear for her son's well being, and wrote it off as her being more worried about Aurum than greetings. Besides, she could always talk to the woman later this evening. Sheera did ask to talk to both Yang and her baby sister, first thing when they got back. Something about it being important.

As she helped the Faunus in to the Stingray's passenger seat , and closed the door she leaned in through the window.

"I know someone who would want a better reunion than what they got." she grinned at the barely conscious faunus, currently trying his hardest to fight the sleeping pill.

"Ruby will be dying to see you again Ari," she beamed at the boy.

Then the smile disappeared with one word. One word that made her face turn white and her blood run cold. That one single word that her friend, her baby sister's friend managed to croak out before slipping into unconsciousness.

"Who?"

… **..**

 **FINALLY IM FINISHED WITH THIS SEQUENCE! I CAN DO THE NEXT CHAPTER I HAVE BEEN PLANNING FOREVER!**

 **I am sorry that this chapter is so long , I plan to move into the next part somewhere in the next chapter. I appriciate you for sticking with me this long.**

 **Initially I Intended to have this whole segment finished long before RWBY volume 3 came out. WHOOPS.**

 **Looks like i messed up.**

 **Anywho I thank you once again for sticking with me this long. I love you all and I'll see you in the next chapter.**

 **AN: I understand that I suck at describing tattoos. SO if you didnt get a good picture of tattoo on Aurum looks like here is the refrence:**

 **Aurum's face**

 **. /091732f0516cca731cf868c7177685c6/tumblr_nh63oizSSB1u607clo1_**

 **Aurum's arm**

 **I apologize for sucking at describing tattoos.**

 **Happy Birthday to me!**

 **Take it easy.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello Oomans**

 **I know many of you probably came for the juicy Lycanthopy content- dont worry it's coming. I like to build up to this type of stuff instead of jumping right into it. Like some stories I've read on here have characters just professing love to each other, and the person on the receiving end of the profession is just like "Me TOO!" But where is the tension? The build up to the "I like you too?" I like those type of stories that show a relationship build into something rather than jump right into it, so that's how i'm writing this. Building up to the good stuff.**

 **I don't know if anyone else feels the same way, but when it comes to Lycanthropy stories I am left quite unsatisfied with my options. There is nothing there for me besides, guy turns into wolf, and wolf terrorizes town. There is no in between, even if the guy is in control of his transformation, we never see him just chilling in wolf form. That's what I intend to do with this. I don't mean to spoil what im gonna be doing for you all, but I have a buncha idea's for Lycanthropy fluff, ideas and other shit. Because there is nothing I like better than something like a Werewolf, just chillin around the house. It will be plot related, just a side no one has seen before.**

 ***SPOILERS* Anywho expect some adorable Lycan fluff, in this story, the closest being a mother and her child the farthest being a lycan coming out to his friends.**

 **AN: So Two things- While there will be not shortage of Lycans I want to know- what's your favorite breed of Lycanthrope? Bear? Lion? Tiger? OH MY!**

 **Leave it in the review section, and maybe gimmie an OC if you're feeling creative- you might see your Lycan in the fic later on!**

 **Second thing- I need you, the reader's opinion on something. I have several Idea's for a short spinoff of** **The Reaper The Beast and The Brawler** **, involving a certain Lycan Tiger with her certain tiger child. It's just all yummy fluff, and im not sure whether to put it the stories in this one, or just have a different story all together for them. Let me know what you think!**

 **Anyway I love you all, thank you for sticking with me through this, and Let's do this.**

… **.**

 **Chapter 6: Conversations with Me, Myself and Ugh - that guy.**

 **AN:** _Faunician langauge_

Sheera Khan's eyes were wide, not only with worry, and astonishment that it was Yang who brought out Aurum, and not Tai Yang. Not to mention that she was supporting her son, battered bruised were to be expected, but shirtless for anyone to see his stripes, or tail was not.

The fact that Yang carried Aurum out at all was a good sign. A sign that she was not corrupted by the media's outlook of the Faunus people. While admittedly the media wasn't deliberately slandering the Faunus, the White Fang was giving them lots of material to work with. Maybe if she had stopped them when she had the chance there would be no slandering in the first place…

No. She couldn't think like that now. Not while her cub was in pain.

She supposed she didn't need her own bandana now that Yang knew. The cat was out of the bag, (good one Sheera) for Tai Yang's first born anyway. It wasn't like they were going anywhere but home, she could finally give her ears a break from being pressed against her head.

She pulled the her own bandana from her forehead and smoothed out her black, orange streaked hair, letting her orange and black striped Tiger ears stand up straight and wiggly as freely as they pleased.

She opened the door to her car for Aurum to easily slide in, she wasnt being rude not getting out to greet Yang, but she had just taken off her bandana, and the decision to either go the school year as a human or faunus, she left to her weren't many people around, but she decided not to take any chances. Besides she was going to see her later tonight anyway for the Talk that she needed to have with her and her younger sister Ruby.

Poor Ruby. Tai Yang had just got off the scroll with her filling her in with the details of what happened during Aurum's evaluation exam. Sheera didn't blame the girl, in fact she loved the time she got to spend with the bubbly little flower, plus she could rarely say no to that face.

However after what happened that lead to her cub getting injured, Sheera probably figured that Aurum, might not be so forgiving. For the time being if everything goes how she'd like it too.

Sheera pulled herself from her thoughts and refocused her vision on Yang, still smiling through the stingray's window, and saying something about how Ruby would be so glad to see him again. Her blood ran cold however when the barely conscious cub rasped out his last word before slumping over in a medically induced sleep.

"wHo?"

That was one of the reasons why she would have prefered for Tai Yang to escort him out instead of his daughter. There was nothing she could say about what he asked Yang, nothing she could do to change the subject. The look on Yang's face told her that the word had been registered, processed, and understood.

She couldnt explain now, not because she didnt want to, but because they would be in there for over an hour at least. Which was why she needed both girls to be there for the talk. It may have been selfish to do, but she only wanted to feel the pain of explaining what happened once.

Before the now pale and confused girl could ask what he meant, Sheera spoke up, forcing her brain to translate her words in English and not Faunician tongue. Her human tongue came out in a colombian accented tone like always but the way she spoke sounded foreign even to her this time.

"I suppose I should get him home huh?" she managed out to the girl. who continued to stare at the boy as he slept, with a confused look on her face.

"What did he mean?" the girl whispered after what seemed like ages of silence, but only a few seconds.

" _Shit_ " Sheera sighed in Faunician. It wasn't that she was bad at speaking english, she was actually rather fluent. But it seemed like blowing off the girl's question was one of the hardest things she ever had to say in english. She wanted Yang to know, she needed her and her sister to know, because the were probably the only ones who could fix what was wrong, but she couldn't tell her. Not now anyway. She hated to leave the girl with more questions, but she needed to get her cub out of here before more people see.

" _My little ray of sunshine_ , I promise to explain later but I must get Aurum home." Sheera pleaded with the girl, her greenish gold eyes darting back and forth for those who may be too curious.

Yang looked down for a moment, and then finally pulled away from the corvette window.

" _Thank you_ my girl." Sheera smiled before pulling away from the sidewalk watching the young blonde walking back to the school petting her hair with a confused frown on her face from the rear view mirror. She felt bad, not for the girl but for her cub. She probably should be doing this at all, in fact it was rather selfish of her to even try to talk to the girls about what she had planned, but the thought that she had to keep him in the dark made her feel guilty.

And knowing her that was something because guilt wasnt something that came easy to the tigress.

Her plan was for his benefit, his well being, but it still left a dirty taste in her mouth.

Sheera's mind swam with questions about tonight. She could probably count on the girls, they had always counted on her. But that was when she was- or pretended to be- human. Tai Yang, Qrow, and even Summer - Oum bless that woman- had kept her and her cub's "secret" from the his friends for as long as she, or to be more accurate, Aurum could remember. Yang had shown that she wasnt in the slightest phased, at least that was what she saw, but she wasnt so sure about Ruby.

Sheera sighed at the stoplight as she watched her cub's chest rise and fall as a soft wheeze escaped his lips. She stared at the x shaped scar just below his hairline in the center of his forehead. She gripped her steering wheel tightly as she felt white ivory claws protrude from underneath her human fingernails. All doubts had been supressed for the time being, and replaced with determination.

Her plan would work, she mentally snarled at herself. For the sake of her son, the sake of his friends, and the sake of his very well being. It **HAD** too.

Sheera drove past the tram station, past the coffee shop several blocks away from it. So much had changed since the had last been here. But she certainly was glad to be home. She hoped that her cub was too. If he even remembered home. Maybe once they finish unpacking everything...

She began to focus on the road, somthing to take her mind off what just happened to her cub. There was nothing on the radio of interest execept stories of the White Fang's more violent and bolder uprisings and revolts since thanks to the new leader, which caused her to shut off the radio completely. Listening to any of that right now would be like pouring salt in an open wound. An old wound, but still a wound nonetheless. One she had been trying to heal for 16 years now.

How dare the Fang call that bastard there leader.' She thought to herself before snuffing out the stream of thoughts and questions soon to follow before they appeared in her mind. That was not something to be worried about at the time either. The only things that should be on her mind were her house, her cub, and the Talk she was going to have with the girls tonight.

The White Fang could wait.

Driving in silence for a couple minutes, the orange Corvette soon arrived infront of their house, and put the car in park infront of a white moving van. She couldn't wait to finally settle back down in their old house, and neither could her cub.

Well, to call it a house was an understatement. A MAJOR understatement. The house was an ancient temple to be more precise, created by her great-great- something grandfather Genghis Khan. If anything it was probably the oldest still in use structure in Patch.

The Khan Temple was of Chinese style, with a walled and concrete paved courtyard infront of the temple, with a circular entrance. The Khan temple was two stories high, and peaked out from dense wilderness of trees behind it. She was glad to finally be home, especially today where she could have a stable, and secure place to… take care of her business. The Temple was actually created before Patch was colonized by humans, and had served as a school of sorts for her people were… first learning how to control themselves.

A lot had changed since then, Patch was colonized, Signal was built, some towns, a community and – oh hey they had neighbors. Great. There was a middle aged woman with hair almost white with age. The woman looked up from getting her newspaper, then her eyes grew wide before briskly walking back into her house. Sheera looked up in her rear view mirror and remembered she had taken her bandana off the top of her head a while ago. And from what she could see her husband had quickly came to the window to watch her as well.

Even better.

Not a single word was uttered to each other yesterday, they seemed to be busy with their own agenda, while she and her cub busied themselves unloading the moving van to refurnish the temple. Now that they see they were not human, tey were currently riling themselves up about nothing. Sheera huffed and muttered something about humans in faunican. They didn't seem too worried about them when they had their bandanas on. Well as long as they kept to themselves it would be fine.

She shrugged as she got out of the car and smoothed out her clothing. She calmly walked as if she didn't suspect anything, her tail calmly swishing back and forth behind her to the click of heels as she walked to her cubs side of the the corvette.

Her son, bloodied, bruised, bandaged and barely conscious, groaned as she lifted his arm over her shoulder and helped him into the courtyard, still feeling the gaze of the humans on her back.

As soon as they passed through the large circular entrance, she felt a sense of welcome, and gave a sigh of relief, the beauty of their own home coming back to them, well her at least. Tall trees above almost completely shaded the courtyard, their green leaves illuminated by the sun, and turning the grey pavement of the court yard a beautiful green, with some yellow rays of sunshine making it passed the leaf blockades above. Several benches made of ancient stone lined the courtyard walls in the roofed shade of the walls. At the center of the small courtyard, as they walked, underneath a white cherry tree with almost white leaves, was a statue of a powerful tiger roaring. Its stripes rippling on top of its metal muscles as its large clawed forepaw made to swipe at an adversary.

Behind the tiger, was a small pond filled with koi fish, as if the Tiger was protecting the fish from the imaginary adversaries. At least that was how she liked pictured it. She couldn't help but feel butterflies as she passed the ancient statue. It filled her heart with joy as she remembered how she used to climb on it all the time. How her cub and Ruby and Yang used to climb on it when they were little. She was very thankful to Tai Yang, to play groundskeeper for her, while she and her cub were away for so long. The guy had nothing better to do from what she had heard from Qrow. The place looked clean, just how she left it and she owed him big now.

Qrow probably did something too but her heightened sense of smell detected large amounts of bourbon was had on the bench in the corner so she remained skeptical about that.

It was a little ways from the front doors to the living room but she had managed to get her cub to the couch before collapsing herself by the coffee table, onto the wooden floor.

It wasn't that her son was heavy, well to her anyway, but when one only has one good leg to stand on while carrying another, things can get complicated, especially when the person being carried is less than conscious at the moment.

She rubbed the outside of her right thigh, to soothe the dull pain that throbbed against the skin. That damn tooth was aching her again. It was such a pain to deal with, especially in the line of work she chose. Being a Huntress was difficult enough, but being a Freelancer made her job alot harder. Which was why until her leg was healed she would be taking some time off from saving the world and such from the forces of Grimm. It actually wasnt her choice to take time off, it was more of a doctor's order, yet given what she, and the ablilties she had, Doctors tended to be wrong half the time. However Garrett was persistent with the

While I lick my wounds, Alicard is probably out there doing who knows what to who knows who. She grumbled to herself as at the same time realised she left her cane in her car.

 _Alicard_ , she growled to herself as she limped towards the door. That damn Grimm was the cause of this, the cane, the limp , all of it. He was a Grimm on the MW list. The Most Wanted List for Freelancers and Huntsmen. The Grimm fuck was number 2 in the ranking, aside from the 2nd largest bounty on the list, he was responsible for 48 civilian deaths, 6 huntsmen, including freelancers. And she would've made it 7. She supposed she should be counting her blessings however. If she were any normal huntress the doctors would have had to amputate it. However thankfully she wasn't. And thankfully the doctors didnt ask that many questions. No Grimm base infection spreading in her leg, muscles and tissue growing back, and almost no scaring. Garrett and Qrow must've deterred them from asking too many questions and wrote it off as her being a huntress. Thanks to them, the doctors kept out of her business, and thanks to them, she was still alive.

But so was Alicard.

She couldn't worry about it now, as much as she wanted too. Like the Fang, Alicard could wait.

Retrieving her cane from the Corvette she walked back into her house. She needed to worry about this Talk she was going to have tonight above all else. Her cub didn't know it but he depended on this working.

It's going to work. It has too.

…

"Ruby c'mon!" Yang pleaded to her baby sister's door.

The rest of the evaluations went off without anymore unusual hitches. Just the normal scrapes, burns and bruises. Nothing as major as Aurum's injuries.

That Ruby accidentally caused.

As soon as Yang went to park her motorcycle, her puffy eyes baby sister dragged herself into the house, past a passed out Qrow on the couch, even the new puppy Zwei, who at the time was trying to lick the bourbon off the sleeping huntsmans limp fingers, was ignored by the distraught girl as she wordlessly went up the stairs and shut the door to her room.

Yang had been trying to get the girl to come out of her room, or at the very least unlock the door.

She was actually getting somewhat nervous. Ruby's room was rarely ever this quiet. Sometimes when she passed she heard the faint sound of rock music, or her playing one of her instruments, or their dog barking and her laughing in the room.

 _She is really bent outta shape about this_ , Yang thought to herself as she once more gently rapped her knuckles against the door. Then again, if she was responsible for costing an old friend his ribs, an eye and his voice for a while. She'd probably shut herself in her room too.

She may have costed him his memory too, seeing as how he questioned who Yang was, but how could she say that without hurting her further.

It's not like she could tell Ruby that the incident _wasn't_ her fault, because it was.

What would her mother do? Maybe if she was still here...

Yang forced herself to choke down the feelings of sadness, and the water about how to come from her eyes. She needed to be strong for her sister. Right now she needed to be her shelter, her rock, her shoulder to cry on.

Yang sighed and put her forehead against the door. She turned her head towards the window at the end of the hall, showing the greenery of the trees, the entrance to the forests.

What would her mother do? What would Ruby's mother do? Yang hung her head even more against her half sister's door.

Summer could get her to open the door.

Zwei who had given up in his attempts of reciving attention from their passed out uncle, hopped his way up the flight of stairs and waddled towards Ruby's door. The little corgi put his front paws against the door and yipped for his friend to show herself. Surprisingly to no avail.

"C'mon Ruby." She quietly asked. "Let me in huh? Please?" Over the sound of Zwei whimpering against the door, trying to force his snout under the door and scratching the barrier between him and his favorite owner with his paws.

Finally there was the faintest shuffling noise of movement, making Yang hold her breath. Her baby sister was either moving deeper into her sadness or moving to open the door.

Yang finally released her breath when a loud _CLICK!_ of the door broke the silence. Then more shuffling then a thud.

Yang took a deep breath. She actually didn't think she would get this far with her. When Ruby was sad everyone in the house knew it. And it actually put a damper on a lot of things. They sometimes actually had to turn the TVs down because they could hear them, which was unsettling at times.

Yang opened the door to Ruby's room and stepped in, letting their corgi in as well before shutting the door behind her.

Yang moved past a desk that had at least 3 replica or BB firearms on the top, on the right hand side near her closet, and admired the posters on her walls. Red Vs Blue, X Ray and Vav, the Achieve Men, and then a bunch of fantasy based images portraying men and women valiantly standing up while brandishing wicked looking weapons to enormous monsters, pictures of just weapons in general like swords or axes, a few rock posters by some bands and a poster of the huntsmen school Beacon, where she wanted to go when she graduated Signal. Near the desk and chair was the stand for the girl's bass guitar and a jumble of cords on the ground, and the case for her saxophone was on the speaker for her Guitar. Yang remembered how she wanted to learn to play the Saxophone be cause her big sister played it. It was Qrow who convinced her to branch out and try another instrument- the guitar.

Yang gave a small smile, the people in the Mainland she met and even some of her friends, said that people in Patch had too many abilities and skills, too much time on their hands. She would agree with them but Hey, it's Patch. While it was a small island, compared to the rest of the world anyway, it was nice to have hobbies, because actually dying of boredom was a thing that could happen here. Which was why many people when not working or schooling, they had hobbies, video games or parties or some crap like that.

Pulling herself from her thoughts as the corgi waddled past her and managed to lift himself up on her bed, she remembered why she was here. Ruby needed her to be there for her, not in her thoughts.

In front of her was a large queen size bed, with a single sized bunk bed against the wall over the headboard. She had wanted bunk beds when Yang came to her room, but Tai Yang had already gotten the queen. So he and Qrow (mostly Tai Yang) pulled some strings and managed to separate the top bunk from a bottom, and rigged it into a completely safe bunk bed over the original queen. Which was saying something because one of the two was drunk during the entire DIY.

The only light shining through the room was the open window on the left side of the room. In front of the window stood a tripod that held a bolt action BB gun sniper rifle with the ammo and co2 cartridges on the window sill ready to shoot the targets they had set up around the windows field of view of the neighborhood. About three other sniper rifles were in the corner by the window sill.

Suprisingly she had only one casualty before she got really good.

On the top bunk was a sitting form. Upon closer inspection Yang noticed Ruby sitting crosslegged, hunched over and facing the wall.

Zwei whimpered a couple times then fell over on his side on her bed, waiting for his friend to come down.

Standing on the queen, Yang put her hands on the bunk bed rails to steady herself.

"Hey."

"Hey." A small voice replied.

Silence between the sisters was deafening, each waiting for the other to speak. Finally it was Ruby who continued.

" I screwed up again. Didn't i?" She asked, her voice sounding hoarse, soft and on the brink of tears.

Yang wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault. But how could she say something like that when it was not the truth. Especially when her little sister knew it would be a lie.

"I guess that's all a matter of how you define 'screwed up'." Yang said trying a somewhat humorous approach. Yet immediately bit her tongue as the girls head visible went limp, and hung lower than previous.

Running her hand through her jungle of hair, she held her breath until her sister spoke again.

"How is he?"

A few breaths went by as Yang mentally panicked, unsure of whether to sugar coat it or give her the news upfront.

"He'll be fine, Ruby." She finally said trying to reassure her sister.

"That's not what I asked."

Yang flinched at the girls stern but sad tone of voice. Humor wasn't going to work this time.

She finally sighed and shifted her weight on the bed.

"He has some bruising on his left side of his ribs, a black eye, and…"

Yang trailed off. The breathing fire thing technically wasn't her fault right? Aurum chose to breathe fire, so she shouldn't include that right?

"And? And what?" The girl questioned turning her torso up around to see her older sister.

Yang couldn't take the way her face looked. Her silver eyes, big red and puffy, and dried stains of tears coming from them. Her nose red and her bottom lip quivering to hear the news.

Yang almost felt like crying herself, this was the hardest thing she had to do so far. Break the news about an another accident her sister caused.

"His throat is scorched up a little," she managed, making fresh tears trickle down the girls face, "he won't be able to talk for at least a few months."

She almost starting crying herself as her sister turned back around and loudly began to sniffle. Her heart almost broke when she reached out and grabbed her brown and white pillow with the face of a corgi, the one Aurum sent from Vacuo to her for her birthday a few years ago, and hugged it tightly to her chest, rocking back and forth whispering "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it Ari, I'm so sorry, please don't hate me…"

 _Be her rock_. Yang told herself, once again pushing down her own feelings for the sake of her baby sister.

"Aurum doesn't hate you," she guessed. Truthfully she didn't know if it was a lie or not. A couple years apart could change a person's outlook, and since Aurum was a Faunus… Well, Sheera was coming over later she they'd worry about the Faunus thing later.

"Yes he does." Ruby sobbed against the pillow.

Pulling her self together, Yang used the dresser on against right side of the beds to push her foot off of, and swing herself into the bunk. Sitting crosslegged herself she scooted over to her sobbing sister, and as if she weighted nothing, picked her up and sat her on her crossed legs. Her baby sister automatically rested her head against her chest softly crying into her sister.

"No he doesn't." She reassured.

Yang wrapped her arms around her and rocked them back and forth softly in an effort to soothe her.

"He maybe angry or a little upset," she began causing the girl to flinch,

"But I'm sure he doesn't hate you." She told the girl as her sniffling became more quiet and less frequent.

This worked when she was normally sad, or when she had… The nightmares. It never mattered what time of the night, like Yang had developed a sixth sense for them. If she had to get up in the middle of the night, a peak in her baby sister's bedroom was the norm before and after she handled her business. It was like one of the only things that could wake her, was the faint scream or call of her name from the room across from hers. Their dad and Qrow's rooms were downstairs so they rarely had to come up to comfort the girl, and she didn't even mind. She wanted her sister to know that she would be there for her when ever she needed her. That she could be her shoulder to cry on. That she could be her rock.

Then it hit her.

 _Just treat this like another nightmare_.

Yang waited and rocked her sister until her sobs and whimpers fell quiet. She just held her sister to let her know everything would be okay like always. This would just take more time.

"Hey," she said checking to make sure Ruby was still awake. It wasn't uncommon for her to fall asleep after she cried over a nightmare, and ( not that she minded) usually ended up nestled against her sister's embrace. The bunk bed was used mainly by Yang for the morning time. Because though her sister would have good dreams afterwards, Ruby sometimes kicked. and given how fast she ran, her foot in your gut something you'd not want to wake up too.

"Hmm?" Ruby sniffled, her face buried in her sister's chest.

"Remember when you first got that bolt action rifle?" Yang smiled at the tripoded gun peaking out her window.

"Mmhmm," the girl sniffed looking up from her sisters chest at her, waiting for her to continue.

She knew the answer but she asked anyway.

Rapping her knuckles against her chin as if thinking hard.

"What was her name? Uh, Roy? Uh,Ray? No, Rutabaga?"

She felt her sister's lips turn up slightly as she sniffled.

"Rosie," she corrected her sister.

Yang snapped her fingers, and put her finger under Ruby's chin to look up at her.

"I knew that." She told the girl, causing her smile to get slightly bigger. Ruby put her head back down against her sister's chest as she continued her story.

"Me and Dad were setting up all your bullseyes and targets around the neighborhood, while Qrow allegedly gave us the locations of the best spots?"

"I was watching, he wasn't giving you real directions. He was on the front lawn in a recliner, drinking."

Yang smiled, "and you accidentally pulled the trigger when you were setting up Rosie on the tripod?"

"I didn't mean too!" The girl responded, leaning closer against her sister.

"You put a BB right through one of Qrow's favorite flasks." Yang laughed, earning a small whimper from Ruby as her cheeks reddened.

She still remembered the contents of the flask spilling all over Qrow, her screaming "Sorry!" From the window over his screaming, and Her dad nearly falling out of a tree laughing.

"Was Qrow angry?" Yang asked her.

"Yea..." Ruby softly said. In fact she was almost certain that he still hadn't forgiven her for the flask.

"But does he hate you?" Yang followed up her question with another.

She had apologized multiple times about his flask.

She recalled yesterday when she and Qrow played Duty of the Call: Zombies on the living room TV, and he would always revive her character and use his money to open new areas for the both of them.

"I don't think so…" She guessed.

Yang grinned and squeezed her once.

"Of course he doesn't you dork. Because his relationship with you is more important than a stupid flask."

"And so is Aurum's" she said to her sister.

This put a smile on her face.

"He maybe a little peeved, but I guarantee that he will still be your best friend."

"And yours too." She told her older sister who smiled at her.

"Yea, and mine too," She smiled wiping her sister's eyes with her thumb.

"Now what say we chill until Sheera gets here huh?" Yang asked her baby sister.

Her sister perked up at hearing the woman's name.

"Okay!" She said. Yang was about to get down and off the bed, but Ruby reared back from her chest, and rammed her torso and head against Yang's chest, knocking her onto her back on the bed. Ruby then crawled up between her big sisters legs, and once again rested her head on her chest, looking up at the ceiling.

Yang meant to go downstairs, but whatever this was just as good too.

"Hey do you know about this talk Sheera wants to have with us?" Ruby asked her sister as she grabbed her sister's arms and wrapped them around herself.

Yang squeezed her sister again.

"I think I have an idea…"

Given the discoveries of the morning, Yang figured it had to be something along the lines of that. But she'd rather Sheera tell Ruby and not her. So when she noticed Ruby looking up at her expectantly she sighed.

"I'd rather not put the wrong idea in your head. I say we wait for her to tell us."

She honestly didn't know. Maybe she should tell her. To soften the blow before this talk.

"Okay, I think Zwei agrees with you too."

What? Yang questioned before she heard panting right next to her ear. She angled her head like Ruby to look up and see the little corgi sitting at the head of the bed.

The bunk bed. That was like, at least 6 feet from the queen underneath.

The two stared at the corgi and he stared back for a good while.

"How the fuck did you get up here?"

… **Meanwhile** …

White.

White was all there was. And white was all he saw.

Aurum had cracked his eyes open where he lay. And saw before him a landscape that could only give him the indication he was not truly awake.

The world was nothing but a large sea of vast nothing. The sky was a light grey, as if a the storm clouds were just beginning to gather in one area. The only movement besides himself were glass shards. Glass shards that floated in varying sizes and triangular forms.

The second indication he recieved that he was dreaming was the out of body experience he felt as if this moment. Many tiny sharp pricks along his body urged gloom to look at what he lay upon. White gravely rocks. Noticing that he also had no clothes nor shoes to prevent himself from feeling the millions of tiny rocks, jutting against his skin. His charred hood, shirt, pants, boots, everything he remembered upon his person before he fell unconscious was gone.

The third indication of his unconsciousness was himself. Getting off the white gravel rocks to his bare feet, he noticed a mammoth sized shard of reflecting glass slowly floating by. As it passed he saw his appearance.

Human.

Shocked, took a closer look, approaching the glass cautiously. It was unbelievable. He first noticed that his ribs had no bruising and he could move his arm around freely like always. Next he noticed that his tiger stripes that stained his body shoulder to calf, were gone leaving regular, unblemished skin. His left shoulder was free of its tattoo like spiral, and his arm free of the spiral's continuation around his arm. He stared at it. Then his gaze moved up to his hand. He flexed his finger tips to release his claws from underneath his fingernails. He knew nothing about this world and he was completely unarmed aside from the weapons built into his body. But they did not come. They did not flick out with the small _shrink!_ He had grown accustomed too. The first time he looked, by society's standards, right. Human. Normal.

He was skeptical. It felt so.. Alien.

Staring at his face he noticed his hair, was jet black. Free of any white to contrast, as well as tiger ears that should have rested upon his head. There was no bruise where he was punched by the behemoth AK, a few… Hours? Ago? Any way his eyes were normal.

And that was the problem.

His eyes were completely cerulean blue. There was no gold separating the cerulean from the dark of his pupil. Pure cerulean blue. Aurum blinked. Not out of shock, but for the purpose of trying to slit his pupils. The little party trick that activated his night vision. But it did not come. No matter how hard he concentrated or how fast he blinked. They would not slit.

Now he began to panic. His eyes, his hair, his whole body was different. Alien. While he knew it was a dream he was for the most part human. Something many Faunus dreamed to be. To get a head in society to live with the "higher class" or "better race".

Now he was living their dream, stripped of all of his genetic "growths" and "flaws". But it was so sudden, so abrupt, he had not asked to be human, yet he had become one. And now all he wanted was to be himself again.

His opened his mouth to see a tow white rows of small cainines and incisors. His fangs and crushing prey's windpipes, and tearing into meat, along with his back teeth that crunched and snapped bone and ground vegetables alike, were down sized to a more docile, "human-y" look.

And he did not like it one bit. He felt wrong. Naked(even though he actually was).

His tail swished in agitation as- wait a fucking minute!

Aurum's hands found his back side just above his rear and breathed a sigh of relief as he found- nothing?!

His eyes widened as he tried to look over his bare shoulder searching desperately , rubbing his rear for the base of extra appendage, not wanting to believe it was missing.

He only stopped his frantic search when he heard a curt snicker. He froze.

He whirled around with a ready stance. But what suprised at what he saw. Instead of a white empty wasteland. Instead he saw hundreds of white trees. A light fog just above the trunks deterred him from looking up. What worried him was that he realized he was no longer alone.

"Looking for something?" The… Oddly familiar voice asked. Without his ears he couldn't pin point the voices location, he could only hear the general direction. His stalker was moving from place to place. He could be behind anyone of those trees.

The stalker's oddly familiar laugh was behind him, causing the altered Faunus to whirl around ready to face him.

This went on for another moment or too, until Aurum realized there was nothing he could do defensive wise nor offensive. He could try to locate him with smell, but he was almost certain the dream had taken that too. He could try to listen, then scale up one of the trees for an aerial advantage and- nope never mind , he needed claws for that. And there were no low hanging branches to climb, for humans like him.

So he went with the next best thing in his mind.

"Hello?" He called through the white forest. It was a shot in the dark.

"Hi!"

Huh. And there was the light. Well he could keep this up for now.

The voice's owner had yet to reveal himself so he decided the best thing to do was to keep him talking and close in on the location it was coming from.

"W-what are you doing?" Was all Aurum could think of asking. Keep him talking, to keep him still.

"Mmmm… Having a one sided conversation." The voice sarcastically replied behind a tree a few feet away.

Aurum , trying to make sense of what he just heard, slowly took a step, spreading his toes out to make his steps softer, like his mother taught him when hunting prey. No one likes a loud hunter. The question was who was being hunted here.

"I can see that," the boy replied taking another step towards the tree.

"Don't you think it's rude to not address the other member of the conversation?" He questioned trying one of Tusken's gentlemanly sayings.

The voice snorted behind the tree.

"Don't you think it's rude for the other member to be publicly indecent? I don't wanna see our junk at the moment, so imagine how I feel."

Wait "our"?

Aurum paused in his advance for a second, making a face of confusion before shaking it away. Dream or not this guy was out of his mind.

"Not quite," the voice said from behind the tree as if he could read his thoughts, making him freeze in his tracks once more, "technically, your almost out of yours."

Just as he said that, Aurum became more aware of his surroundings. The fog had put contrast to some, mysterious figures in the mist. Beasts of large proportions, silhouetted in the mist, peered from round further distant trees, and darted behind one tree to the next. Some humanoid yet large, others more beastial and possibly 7 feet tall if not taller. Some were figures in the mist were reptilian their long bodies gliding effortlessly through the tree trunks and disappearing as quickly as they came.

Aurum was getting nervous. Not only did he have to deal with this nutjob, but they weren't alone either.

He was just in front of the mysterious boy's tree when he heard the laugh again.

"Yea, they can get annoying but you get used to them," The voice said from behind the tree.

"That aside, Nutjob? That - Y'know what coming from you, it's a compliment. We've never been one to talk about ourself that way, yet given the circumstance-"

The voice was cut short as Aurum leapt around the tree, arms ready to grab the familiar voice's owner.

But no one was there.

The voice could be heard out of his view, with the tree on the right side of his face. How had he moved?

"- it fits." The voice laughed again.

Peering around the tree Aurum found no one once more, save for the monsters in the distance continuing there lurking from tree to tree, and just the hum of the floating mirror shards as the floated by in all directions.

"Hello?!" He shouted, done with the stealthy approach.

"Is anybody there?"

"Nope." The voice said behind him.

Aurum whirled round, expecting to see once again : no one.

However the Dream suprised him once more, and then it shocked him.

Sitting on a chair made of hundreds of glass trianglular mirror shards was : himself. With a large smirk on his face.

"It's just me," The other Aurum said to him with a grin.

"And by me, I mean you."

…

"Girls! Can you come down here?" Was what Ruby awoke too.

Their dad was calling them downstairs.

She managed to lift her sisters arms from around her waist, which was no small feat given the dimensions of the bunk bed, and the size of her sisters arms.

She managed to flip herself over, another impressive feat due to having two people in and a dog in the bunk. She paused looking past her napping sister to the puppy. Attentively watching the both of them from his laying position above Yang's head.

How did he get up here?

She finished her rotation, placing her chin in the creases of her sisters chest. Then she began to lightly poke her face. While Yang had made it clear that if Ruby had to wake her up she could, Yang tended to become cranky if woken up the wrong way. Strong, red eyed, and cranky.

Thankfully this time she wasn't. Cracking an eye open she inhaled deeply before shifting slightly. A grin cracked on her face as her lilac eyes met sliver.

"Mmmm. What's up shortstack?" She yawned not realising how tired she had been.

She got her answer when she heard her dads voice from down stairs.

"Girls! Get down here! There is somebody who wants to see you!"

Ruby, who had her chin buried in her older sisters chest, snapped her head back to her sister with a huge grin spreading acrossed her face.

Zwei began to wag his tail and put his front paws on the railed off part of the bunk, as Ruby did her "acrobatic" routine of exiting the bunk avocet her bed.

Yang was always nervous when Ruby did this and made her promise to only do it when she was around to catch her should she mess up. Though knowing her sister, she probably had this down to perfection, meaning she did it when she was alone anyway.

Ruby climbed off her sister as she sat up, then keeping her body straight, rolled over the rail. She then let her body go limp as she plummeted to the queen sized bed below, engulfing her for a second before she bounced a couple times on the bed.

Yang sat up an rubbed her eyes. It was dark starting to get dark out, and the green leaves of the neighborhood trees began to told her the color of the sun set.

She was pulled from the window when she heard a small thud and a yip. Looking down she saw her dog on the queen next to her sister standing up and shaking himself in a corgi shaped imprint on the bed.

That dog was gonna get himself killed trying to do what Ruby does.

When the trio made it to the hall. Ruby jogged ahead to the stairs before sliding down the railing.

When she made it to the living room she let out a squeal of excitement.

"SHEERA!"

The woman turned from talking to Tai Yang and her face went from one of seriousness to absolute joy.

Sheera was a young woman, around late twenties and early thirties like Taiyang and Qrow. She was wearing a business pencil skirt and matching jacket, with a green shirt and black heels. Her best friend's mother carried a cold steel black cane with a golden dragon in the black glass ball on the grip. Her trademark bandana rested a top her head and her orange and black hair was put behind her in a loose ponytail, and matched her greenish orange eyes.

Her body in Ruby's opinion, was that of perfection, elegance and athletic prowess. It's had been about a year since the incident that lead to Sheera needing the cane, but she could tell that her friends mother was not simply dawdling. Feminine curves in all the right places, and she could even see a little muscle definition under her business suit.

"Ah! My little rose!" Sheera exclaimed catching the girl in the air as she sprang for her, and spun her around, eliciting excited laughter from the young girl. She loved it when Sheera spoke Spanish.

"How have you been?! You have gotten sooo big!" She happily cried, squeezing the girl in a tight hug.

"Good! I know!" Ruby replied excitedly squirming against her.

Sheera nuzzled the girls head with her cheek before noticing the bandages on her bare foot.

With an overexaggerated gasp she set the girl down and gestured to her bandages.

"Little one, what happened here?" Sheera over dramatically asked as if she didn't know the answer.

Ruby looked down at her bandages from the bottom of her knee to the beginning of her ankle and grinned ear to ear at Sheera.

"My evaluation Exam!" Ruby stated proudly, puffing out her chest, and pulling her sleeve up to reveal a white wrapped forearm to match her shin.

Just as Sheera was about to muse at the bandages, a fourth and fifth came into the room: Yang and Zwei, who was under Yang's arm as she came into the living room.

At this Sheera's sudden nervousness could be visible only to the two other adults, and the older girl. She knew what she was, and she knew what Aurum was now.

In a sense she also felt relieved, if Yang already told Ruby of the morning discovery, and Ruby was acting this way to her, it could mean she was alright with the whole thing. Untainted by society's belief of her race being superior.

On the other hand , if how she heard it was correct and Ruby caused the accident, it wouldn't be like Yang to drop a bombshell like that on her sister. At least not at the moment.

Yang put the dog down, who immediately waddled up to the new visitor of the house. Sheera wasn't worried about the dog. She had read the letter Ruby sent back in Vacuo about the new pet, and was prepared to meet the new pet. Given Qrow and Tai Yang, she had actually expected something more… Big. But her opinion changed when the dog got close enough to sniff her leg; did her heightened sense of smell pick up something.

Aura.

After a smiling at Ruby's explanation of the new dog, Zwei, as she called him, the tigress came to greet the blonde girl. Wrapping her in a tight hug, while each was truly happy to see the other, she felt Yang's lips by her human ear.

"How is he?" She whispered.

"Resting." She replied simply, she would go into detail later. After the Talk.

Taking a seat on the couch next to Qrow, Sheera put a much lighter talk to work.

"So I see that you finally got your motorcycle." Sheera remarked towards the

blonde girl as she sat on the arm of Tai Yang's chair.

A small smile spread acrossed the girls face, welcoming the subject change, yet the look in her eyes gave Sheera the message, ' I haven't forgotten, and I would like an explanation.'

"Yea Dad got it for me for my birthday," Yang grinned.

Qrow and Tai Yang could feel a dark aura brewing from the smiling tigress. To be more specific, directed towards them.

"I thought you were going to get a car first…" Sheera questioned mainly towards the other adults.

TaiYang sweat dropped and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yea, about that…"

"She had good grades," Qrow suggested muttering into his flask.

"Plus… She… I got nothing…" Tai Yang surrendered lowering his head slightly at the tigresses flair of aura.

"We kinda dropped the ball on that one…" Qrow muttered shying away from the tigress' aura as well.

They all knew how Sheera felt about motorcycles, or "murdercycles" as her accent made her pronounce them. Aurum's older brother drove a motorcycle, which sparked the interest in the vehicles in both Yang and Aurum. However due to a freak accident when they were little, Garrett had an accident while driving with her cub. Although they both left the wreck unscathed, and all the other parents at the daycare who went on and on about what _could_ have happened, Sheera had been put off against the murdercycles. She had came to them and told them that the cubs should have learnt to drive cars before getting on those death traps.

And since Sheera raised her cub alongside Summer and Raven's, with how close they all were she saw the two as if they were her own, which the girls were happy about, for reasons like she was awesome and her accent made words sound funny.

The evening went on without another hitch, the girls told the three adults about their days at the school. Ruby told of how she got her bandages in her evaluation exam, complete with kung fu poses and sound effects. Yang told of how her strength was pushed to the limit; the most recent being not in her classes at the huntsmen training academy, but she and Qrow having to hold Tai Yang back and keep her father from interfering with the evaluation when the 7th and 8th robots "hurt my little girl".

Soon the sun began to disappear behind the trees above the house. The laughter and the stories came to a halt when Yang finally asked the question.

"So what's up Sher? How come you moved back? You said you wanted to talk to us? Was this it? You missed us?" She said the last part teasingly.

The faces in the room attentive to the tigress, waiting for her response to the blondes question.

"That would be a main point of why I'm here but not the complete reason." Sheera smiled.

Ruby who laid sprawled out acrossed Sheera's lap, looked up from studying the woman's cane.

"The move to Vacuo… Wasn't supposed to be permanent. We moved back when I was sure we were safe."

Father and Uncle's expressions became more relaxed, as the two girls expressions changed to ones of confusion.

"The other reason we came back, is because I need your help. Aurum, needs your help."

The mention of his name made everyone in the room stiffen, now completely attentive to the tigress.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning," Sheera said, hesitantly reaching for her bandana.

"It's time we talked."

…..

 **OK so Honestly the Winter break has been the only break I have had in a while to work on this, aside from car rides to place to place, honestly i didnt know I Had written so much, and unfortonatley I felt I had to split this bitch into two parts.**

 **I know I keep going back on the promise of Lycan stuff, and it will be included in the next chapter**

 **Scouts Honor.**

 **JK I am not a Scout.**

 **Anywhoosels I'd like to thank you all for sticking with me this whole time, and I appriciate the feedback you all have been giving me.**

 **Stay Classy.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Ok were finally back! Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out but I have honestly been swamped. Not to mention Procrastination is a bitch. Its like one of those things where you feel like the time to write isn't then, and th==you boredly sit through an entire netflix series, and whoop-de-fucking-do, you killed a buncha hours you could've been working on this.**

 **This probably isnt the most ideal time to post this either. Since I should be studying for Finals. But if your reading this around the same time I post this, i guess were in the same boat.**

 **Procrastinators unite- later.**

 **Anywho I know I promised Lycan action and shit and don't worry, honest to God It's the next chapter.**

 **Bare with me ok. I can't just have a character pull one out his ass, there has to be a reason for one, ykno? That's just good plot build up.**

 **And I'm pretty sure that you guys already know my intention on this Lycan fic, I mean i think I said so in a previous AN. As much Lycan action this will have, I also wanted to show a chiller side of them as well, I mean I've always wondered if they every just chill around the house shifted. Like I said, expect Mother Lycan and son fluff, to start off with.**

 **It's a spoiler if you read these anyway, but who does?**

 **Look at me writing about some Lycan just chilling around and cuddling her son and shit. Probably speaks volumes about my mental state on Lycans and the like.**

 **Then again you people read this stuff so I'll see you all in the loony bin.**

…

The duplicate of himself was unlike him. In every way. Currently.

The duplicate was everything he wasn't. And the only word that came to mind was accurate.

With black cargo pants and yet he had traded the combat boots for street shoes, the other Aurum was shirtless. The stripes that littered or used to litter his body covered the duplicates ribs, sides and back.. His Tiger identity, or spiral tattoo wrapped around duplicates arm where it should belong on his. His face and hair were accurate as well. Unlike his currently, it was over powered with the white hair, and not just black. His tiger ears also rested atop the duplicates head. The duplicates face was Aurum's with slitted cat eyes the gold separated the cerulean of his eyes from his pupils, and the whites of his eyes were black. His facial tiger marks were present as well the ones that ran from his eyes down to his cheeks, The Line that stopped at the tip of his nose, the line up his chin stopping under his lip and the ones that started from the corners of his chin and stopped at the ends of his lips. They were all there.

Normally only showing up in times of anger or when he allows his instincts to take over when hunting, it was sort of a shock. His duplicate looked like a true predator. He dare say an animal. This must be how the humans feel when they saw him when he got like that.

However, Frankly if he wasn't so freaked out he'd say that he looked awesome.

"Who are you?" He finally managed to ask.

With a flick of his tail, the duplicate leaned forwards in his chair and grinned showing of his pearly white fangs.

"Who do you think?"

"Umm…"

"Three guesses," the duplicate said giving three claw tipped fingers.

"But the other two don't count."

Aurum blinked. Unsure of what to do or say in this situation.

"Aww c'mon, don't tell me you forgot all about lil ole you?"

"... What?"

The duplicate sighed, obviously bored his little round and round game he was playing with him, stood from his chair, which dissolved back into a million mirror shards, and walked towards Aurum.

Placing a hand on the boys shoulder, his slitted eyes met pupils.

"It's me-you Aurum." The duplicate grinned, enjoying his doubles confusion, "And I need your help."

…

Sheera felt her heart pound in her chest as she held her breath. She hadn't counted on Yang telling the younger girl her and her cubs' secret, yet Yang had figured to get the news out so she herself could see how Ruby would react. None of them knew how corrupt the girl had become in her opinion about Faunus due to the people on the mainland, the news, even Yang's friends.

The room was silent as everyone held there breath as the girl who had seemingly forgotten all about it, sat up in Sheera's lap as the topic had been brought up.

Ruby stared at the woman, her silver eyes making Sheera feel uncomfortable.

The room was dead silent when she finally spoke.

"Everybody keeps saying that Faunus are dirty, mean, and that they are no better then animals." She began.

Sheera clenched her bandana tightly in her hand, her ears drooped slightly at the comment.

"I think that they just need to give them a chance. Like the one I got with Aurum."

The girl gave a big smile before wrapping her arms around the suprised tigress.

"And the one I got with you."

A collective sigh of relief was let out around the room as Sheera tightly embraced the cub.

"I hope you realize that I'm not actually speaking spanish, yes?"

"Really?"

Sheera rolled her eyes with a smile as she held the younger girl. So naive.

"But you didn't know that we were Faunus," Sheera began but was stopped by Yang.

"That doesn't change our opinion." She spoke up, warming the Faunus' heart.

"I don't care what they say," Ruby said against the tigress.

"Your good people."

Sheera's smile softened slightly as Ruby and Yang looked at her.

Taiyang and Qrow exchanged looks before nodding.

"That doesn't mean that good people can't do bad things." She sighed, recieving questionable looks from the two cubs.

…

"That's…not possible," Aurum said gently batting away the duplicate's hand on his shoulder.

Unfazed, the duplicate smirked.

"You understand your in a dream, right?"

"Can I wake up then?" Aurum asked curtly, obviously a little freaked out about the situation he was in.

The double shrugged. "You can try I guess. But that doctor gave us some pretty strong shit to help us sleep off the worst of our- AHEM!" The double coughed before gesturing to his eye and ribs.

"Recent endeavors. Nice job by the way"

Aurum rubbed his bare chest in the area he got hurt during the evaluation. While he was dreaming, in the back of his mind he could feel his awake body, the throbbing of the injury remained, but it had been dulled.

"So I have me all to ourself." The double snorted at his own joke.

Aurum blinked. He remained silent, staring at the duplicate of himself; his true self. Unsure of what to do or say. He had never had a dream like this. The only sounds to pierce the silence were the soft humming that seemed to eminate from the millions of trianglular mirror shards, and the crunch of white gravel in the distance, as the silhouettes of great beasts, peering from behind the white trees, moved from one tree to another.

The duplicate flicked his tail and checked his claws.

"So like I was saying," the double began breaking the silence.

"I need your help."

"With what?"

"Us."

Aurum unsure of what the doppelgänger was going on about waited for him to continue.

The double took a deep breath before saying the next thing that left the boy speechless and confused.

"Your broken." The double said slowly circling the boy.

"What?"

"Well," the double second guessed,"You aren't broken, I mean besides a few bruised ribs a black eye, and some other unsightly injuries your fine."

The double stopped in front of him.

"Your mind," he said putting a claw to Aurum's forehead. "That's what's broken."

…

" I was a member of the White Fang."

Yang's eyes widened, and Ruby gasped on the tigresses' lap.

"You were! Why did!? Why didn't?! Wha?" Ruby sputtered only to be calmed by TaiYang.

"Ruby, it's ok. This happened a long time ago." Taiyang reassured her, and her sister who remained silent, waiting for her to continue, and probably unsure of what to think of the woman now.

"Yes," the tigress said," this happened before you three were even born. Back when the White Fang was just a civil rights organization. Before everything changed. Before…" She said slightly frowning.

"Before everything went wrong."

…

"What are you talking about?" Aurum questioned. How could his mind be broken? He felt fine.

"Of course you would feel fine. You wouldn't be able to stand if you didn't." The double said."and yet here I am, if that doesn't indicate that something is wrong, I don't know what will."

Aurum growled in frustration and ran his hands through his hair.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm me, and your me too!"

Aurum was and the doppelgänger had a stand of, slitted eyes locked with blue pupils. The double while enjoying himself, was trying to make him understand, and the real to confused or stubborn to listen.

The double took a breath, and shook his head and hands, "Alright alright alright alright, you obviously have no idea what I'm talking about. So let's take a step back shall we?"

The double said as he began to walk, looking at each shard of mirror that floated by, pushing some out of the way as he walked.

Aurum was getting frustrated. This guy talked and talked, calling him broken, toying with him, and had yet to answer any questions he asked, with a straight answer.

"Your just going to ignore me? Answer me damnit who are you!" He yelled at the calm Faunus version of himself. He was sick of playing these mind games.

"Sorry I can't answer your questions right away," the double said inspecting a mirror shard as it slowly floated by.

"I've never had this much control until now. Been meaning to talk to myself," the double chuckled, "and now I finally can."

"Where am I?" The now human boy asked.

"Your brain," the double answered simply, not even looking away from what he was doing.

"What?"

"Your mind," the double said. "The chrome dome, your thinker box. Seems a lot emptier than you thought right? Don't worry this is just a playground area."

Aurum could only stare at the Faunus him. Those drugs the nurse gave him must've been stronger than she thought.

"I'm not trying to confuse you," the double said looking at Aurum.

"Well… Maybe a little…" He chuckled again.

"But that's just our personality."

"But we haven't even started with the mind games," the double said, touching a claw to the mirror shard. The shard glowed bright white before dematerializing completely.

"Try this one on for size."

…

"When I first joined the White Fang, joined because it was an effective civil rights movement for Faunus." Sheera stated.

"Garrett, Qrow, your father and mothers supported me in my desire for equality. I told the Fang I was a freelancer of Vale, which they jumped at the idea that even a huntress, a freelancer no less, would join the fight for equality. However I never gave them my real name, and never showed my face to anyone but those closely trusted."

Sheera reached and pet the puppy, that had taken the place of Ruby on her lap when the girl moved to the floor in front of Qrow, to look at the woman as she told her story.

She smiled thoughtfully.

"It's also where I met Aurum's father."

The four waited for the Tigress to continue, none spoke. THey knew this was hard for her and it was something she had to get off her chest. To figure out why they left had always been a question Ruby wanted to know, and now she could finally have her answers.

"The way the White Fang worked was there would be three or more leaders who suggested new ideas for protest." She told the humans.

"When an idea was working, that leader stayed in power, but when an idea was beginning to fail, it was find a way to improve it, or step down and let the next leader try his hand."

"And you were a leader?" Yang spoke up, more of a statement then a question.

Sheera smiled, and shook her head. "No, but I was the right hand to the third leader,"

"The heir to the name of the organization."

She smiled and put her hands up as if showing a plac.

"The Dragon of the West, the Benevolent Beast, as the humans knew him. But I knew him as Kronos WhitFong."

"And Aurum's father."

…

It was him as a little kid.

That was the only thing Aurum could register from what he saw.

The triangle the double touched had created a chain reaction: millions upon millions of triangles flew to the one location, each falling in line next to each other as if they belonged, forming objects. The first object to form in the center of his vision was a tiger. Not a real one, but a statue of the ferocious beast.

It was the statue from the courtyard of his house.

The mirror shards worked in a matter of seconds, putting themselves together. The child version of himself was wearing a simple pair of jeans, and a long sleeve shirt with a shark on it, a baseball cap donned his head to cover his ears and he could tell by the way he moved, that his mother had put his tail through the Jean loops like a belt. The 5 year old Aurum ran around the stature, and hopped across the pool of koi on the rocks laughing and looking behind himself as he did another lap around the statue.

"I… Remember this." Aurum said as he began to move slightly closer to the event taking place.

The mirror shards went to work once more, forming another figure. He remembered what the younger was running from. He was being chased. The shards formed a figure, chasing him round and round the statue. Another figure was made slightly smaller that the two of them, squatting on one of the pond rocks, watching the koi with its finger in the water.

Aurum smiled, he remembered this, the complete Immersion of happiness he felt watching himself have fun, remembering the time he- and… He and…

At this he frowned. He didn't understand this. He was drawing a blank on the two children in the memory. Not only that but the mirror shards had done nothing but for the shape, unlike his younger self putting in details. He couldn't quite process what he was seeing. The figures were faces were… Darkened. Shrouded in black mist that seemed to eminate from them, as if Oum himself, took an airbrush and covered their faces in shadow, so no one could truly look upon them.

"I love this memory" The duplicate told him, watching right along side of him. "What do you see?"

"What's wrong with them?" Aurum asked as he watched the trio play.

"So you can't see them?" the double asked looking at Aurum.

"...No,"

"Well, at least we know how far along we are ."

"And it doesn't look good so far…"

…

"The first leader, Kronos' father, was responsible for gaining the firsts rights we have today, but his methods were unheard of yet powerful and effective, and unfortunately he was assassinated by the humans. The second leader was responsible for gaining many rights for my people before he finally stepped down. It was Kronos who picked up where his father left off."

Sheera smiled remembering her days in the organization.

"We had accomplished so much, and we were about to accomplish even more. Everyone had loved the methods of Kronos' father because they showed the humans that we weren't afraid of them. And it showed the humans we were willing to fight for our equality."

"I read about Kronos WhitFong," Yang inquired from her seat. "How could you accomplish so much after so much bloodshed?"

Sheera simply smiled. "Because this time we spilled no blood ourselves, it was all the humans doing. Sit-ins, going to human restrooms, boycotts, it was peaceful protesting. When they asked for instructions, Kronos would always tell them 'Stronger men-"

"Know when to not fight back." Yang finished the leaders quote from the article she read.

Sheera nodded. "Humans began to see themselves as the animals and not us from the media, the news, all showing the brutal methods used and the savage beatings against the Faunician people who were not showing any signs of aggression."

"So what happened?" Ruby asked. "What went wrong?"

"The body count." Sheera answered stoically, her face hardened like stone as she studied the little golden dragon in the ball on top of the cane she held. "The humans were making martyrs of us, and that was the problem. Men. Women. Children. We were literally dying for what we believed in. The other leaders began speak out against Kronos' method of nonviolence. Many of them wanted to take revenge against the humans who killed their friends and family. They wanted blood. But Kronos denied them this. Many were angry enough to attack Kronos himself, but I would put them in their places, as he calmed them down. He had this way with people," she sighed thoughtfully.

It began to go our way finally, we were breaking barriers all over Remnant, rights were being given to us and set in stone, while we were still a ways off from equality, Kronos and I were growing closer as well. But Kronos' luck as it seemed, ran out," she said collecting herself.

Every leader had a set and given date for when they are to step down, but what they are doing is working, their time as leader is extended. When the time came to decide the new leader, Kronos was chosen to renew his term, and the next leader was passed over in favor of him. She closed her eyes to ward away the tears, obviously a few people were not happy about the decision.

"It's okay Sheera," Yang said. The girl already knew what happened next. The documentaries and news articles every year on the date of The Benevolent Beast's death, was clue enough as to what happened next. The detectives, the few who cared anyway, were still trying to piece together who killed the dragon.

Something told her that Sheera may know more but wasn't planning on telling the police.

The tigress closed her eyes once more.

"I never got to tell him about our cub…" She whispered softly.

"So what does this have to do with Aurum?"

The Tigresse's ears twitched at the sound of her cubs name and she wiped her eyes and smiled.

"I'm getting to that little rose."

"After Kronos was killed, the new Leader came to power, and he wanted blood."

Taiyang remembered the backlash Kronos' death had on the Faunician people. The news of the Dragon's assassination spread like wildfire acrossed the Faunus world wide. Riots, murders, theft all broke out in full. Thankfully the huntsmen of Remnant had stopped the approaching waves of Grimm, and somehow managed to calm the rioting on both sides before any monumental damage happened. But something told him that new leader had something to do with starting the riots, using the Dragons passing as a spark for the backlash.

"The leader kept on about an eye for an eye, and how they were tired of begging, showing their bellies Everything Kronos had preached, but with a twist : Why have equality when they could rule?"

"I never wanted any of it, and I wanted no part of the White Fang after what he did." Sheera said.

"I had influence. Probably as much as a leader. So I asked anyone who felt the same way, come with me. Surprisingly I didn't expect most of organization to follow me, they didn't even know my true name, or what I looked like behind the mask." Sheera chuckled.

"Over two thirds of the organization left that day, and we went back to peaceful protests, all throughout Remnant. Of course, this wouldn't go over well with the new leader. Furious he enforced the new rule: No One Leaves The White Fang. Yet when people still left he decided to become active. Show his followers that his new rule was law" Sheera told the humans.

"It wasn't until you were born that he began making examples of those who defied his rule."

…

"What about this?" The double asked for the upteetnth time.

Aurum rubbed his face and ran his hands through his hair. This was the fifth memory the duplicate had subjected him too, and frankly he was tired of the same old thing. Young version of him, and people who he couldn't recognize.

This one however left him puzzled.

The memory was in a frozen state, nothing moved. Birds themselves were frozen mid flight around the memory.

He remembered this. This was when they left for Vacuo. He saw himself, Sheera, and Garrett getting into a truck and himself waving goodbye through a snotty nose and big tears.

The people on the curb infront of his house he once again didn't recognize.

Once again no detail had been added to them, two men, and two women holding the hands of the women were two children. One clinging on to another as they waved goodbye in their frozen states.

The double was walking round the truck, his claws running through his hair in frustration.

"Cmon you have to remember something!" The double continued ranting and raving about how he needed to remember.

Dick.

If I'm going to do something I had better know what it is.

He studied the darkened figures. The smallest on in particular to exact. The form of a little girl, probably 6 or 7.

He saw a something peculiar however.

While the girl was featureless like the rest of the family on yet there appeared to be something on her face.

It was a black ooze. A slimely looking mass that seemed to drape over her face and shoulders.

The double walked round the frozen truck still ranting about how their had to be something that Aurum remembered about these people.

The double didn't notice Aurum approaching the ooze covered girl until it was too late.

"There has to be something anything! It couldn't have just completely locked you out like this."

Aurum brought his hand closer to the black ooze, his curiousity getting the better of him, especially since he managed to make out glints of sliver underneath the ooze.

The ooze seemed to react to his hands proximity to the girls face as it began to flop on to his fingers, like an octopus over dry terrain.

The black ooze seemed to react rapidly to him as it began to crawl the length of his arm to his elbow.

"What the-"

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" The duplicate screamed.

Too Late.

Aurum tried to turn from the frozen family, to face his double only that he couldn't turn completely around. The ooze seemed to be pulling him towards the girl.

The Double appeared behind him and grabbed him trying to pull him away from the family.

Aurum only truly panicked when the little girl he thought to be frozen in time looked at him. Her face slowly almost rigidly turned to face him, the sound of cracks and pops heard over the sound of the two trying to break free from the ooze.

The ooze seemed to shudder, to hiss in displeasure at its victim trying to get away, its reach almost up to his elbow with a more rapid pace.

Aurum could feel his heart in the reality, his real face beginning to sweat, his vision saw flashes of red like a shudder that went on and off. The girl face seemed to peer through the black ooze, the makings of a while, pale smooth, nose peering through the mask.

Aurum couldn't look away. He had stopped struggling, unlike his double who continued the desperate struggle for escape for both of them. But he couldn't look away.

His heart hammered in his aching ribcage as the smooth white nose, protruded further through the black ooze. Not to mention the ooze was starting to reach his elbow. The nose protruded until a half circle mouth, two crude half circles for eyes, with a shined forehead. His heart was like a gattling gun as his worst nightmare peered through the ooze.

The Porcelain Mask. And its smile was as malicious as that day.

His breath came fast and he began to panic as he can see brief blurs of red, and cracks in his vision made fragments of what looked like a ceiling.

The celing of his house.

He was waking up.

While he would like to leave this devil, this blurry memory, and this dream behind, and snap back to reality, apparently his faunus counterpart had other plans.

The porcelain mask, unlike in his previous nightmares, was cracked, like before in the extrance exam when he stood up to it. However that malicious smile still remained through its cracked exterior, and it was back for more. The mask began to gurgle and hiss as the girl he presumed to be frozen grabbed his arm like a vice. Trying to pull away was futile, the mask was finally going to get its due, as payback from the entrance exam.

It wasnt until he heard the distinct hiss of a sword being unsheathed that his hearing returned, picking up the distinct sounds of the doubles voice, instead of the general noise.

"Sorry about this!" The double said, over the noise of an object rapidly cutting through the air.

Aurum was to mesmerized with the horror of the mask, to break his gaze with it. Before he could ask what the double meant, he heard the sound of a swords swing and shattering glass. Aurum felt the full force of gravity pull him down onto the pavement of the houses courtyard. He could only make out shaky images, his first was the family and the mask the girl was wearing. To his horror they had all turned around, wearing the same each porecelain mask as the youngest of the group, free from frozen time, and moving stiffly, like zombies towards him. The next was the bright brown forearm the girl gripped tightly as she shuffled towards him. And the third was the doppelganger, with a dao sword with a ribben on the hilt, with a splatter of dripping black ooze on the curve of the blade.

Aurum would have looked down at his arm, if the double hadnt basically dragged him off the floor by it. Or what was left of it anyway.

"C'mon!" He screamed, his claws digging into his bicep as he forced the boy up.

"Run!"

Aurum finally realizing the danger he was in, scrambled to his feet just as the double passed him, so he could keep up with the dragging of his arm. The pair sprinted past the statue and its pond, Aurum's ears pounding, but not over the hungry creaks, cricks, slurps, snarls, and hisses of the mask donned family, making it clear they were still there. And they were still coming.

As they ran for the front doors of his house, he looked back to see the family, shuffling, one or two leaping over the statue to catch their targets and running in there own sick demented way, gaining on them. Aurum could feel himself run harder, his heart pounding with the ticlking feeling of adrenaline in his gut.

His Double all but ripped the left door open and slung the boy inside the house. Aurum fell on his back, and began to backpedal, watching the double take the ooze stained sword and shove it through one of the porcelain masks, ooze spurting from the cracked mask as the psycopathic smiling monster of his nightmares shrieked in pain. The double moved to close the door, pushing with all his might, before the tallest member of the masked family, managed to shove its arm in through the door, clicking and screeching, as it clawed at the door, leaving crude marks against the wood.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" The faunus version of himself snarled, straining against the door as the entire family began to bang against the barrier. "No! NO! Don't Mind Me!" The double bit as he put his back against the door, the claws in his feet digging into the wooden planks.

"Just trying to keep you alive is all!" The sarcasm dripping from his strained tone.

Aurum stumbled to his feet disoriented at how fast all this was happening, and found himself against the door pushing too. Aurum pushed with all his might with his faunus twin.

"No no," the double strained sarcastically," seriously I got this."

The banging on the door came louder and more ferocious, the claw marks on the right door more visible and more numerous.

Then he heard noises other than the monsters like cracking glass. Guttural growls and snarls from at least one member of the possessed family turned into shrieks and wails over the crackling noises.

Finally to the shattering of glass,did the doors give way, and slam shut with a heavy clang.

With a relieved sigh the double slide down the door, exhausted, However Aurum still remained standing, his heart still like a jackhammer.

The door had closed on the possessed family, separating them from the danger. The arm that snapped off when the door shut, black ooze pouring from the break as it writhed on the ground next to the door.

Speaking of arms.

Aurum remembered the doppel's sword and how it was bloody before he stabbed the porcelain mask.

Looking down at his ar- HOLY SHIT!

Aurum shrieked at the jagged stump that used to be his forearm. "YOU FUCK!"

"Aurum I need you to calm dow-"

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down you furry piec-a shit!" Aurum screamed violently pointing at what used to be where his arm was.

"Ok I know your mad but-"

"Mad? MAD?! I'm fucking loosing my shit here you _shithead mother fucker!_ "

The double sighed, sheathed his Dao sword and approached his counterpart as his panicked insults blurred from English to Faunician.

Aurum stopped his screaming as the double took his hands to his jawline just below his human ears and with a small _pop!_ Had cleanly separated his head from his body. He closed his mouth as his Faunus counterpart stuck his head directly in front of his face.

"This is a dream _dumbass._ " The head said calmly and sternly.

While this probably would have put anyone else off, Aurum actually found this comforting. He hadn't truly lost his arm. He just unwillingly dreamt he did.

What a relief.

Putting his head under his arm, the double silently pointed at his stump. Or used to be stump. What he was looking was another arm. Like the one he lost, but like exactly like the one he lost. Flexing the fingers and moving the wrist realizing he was whole again.

And that all the screaming and theatrics he just did were for nothing. Not to mention he insulted his only means of protection in this dream world.

The double was simply watching him, his head still under his arm like a football. Aurum found his hand to be more interesting then the double, especially due to the awkward silence after what just occurred.

"Huh." He said admiring his arm.

"Mmm," the double grunted in response.

"Sorry…"

"...yea"

"...We good?"

He timidly looked at the other version of himself, who with ease, took his severed head, placed it on his neck facing to the right and loudly snapped it back into place facing forward. Like snapping someone's neck in reverse. The double then helped Aurum up with their trademark fanged grin.

"How could I ever stay mad at me?"

They began to walk. Where, Aurum wasn't sure. Just more floating trianglular mirrors. Looking back he noticed that the door to his house disintegrated into triangles as well.

"Hey I have a question?"

"What are you doing here?" The double asked not breaking stride.

It was really freaky how this guy could do that.

"I'll try not to do it as often." The double smiled.

Really freaky.

"Well I guess you could call this a maintenance check." The double thought.

"To map out all our problems and then come back with the tools to fix them."

"So where are we headed?"

"The source of our problem." The double replied jerking a thumb backwards at where they had escaped the possessed mask family.

The pair Walked past a large cage, suspended in the air by heavy looking chains. Upon further notice Aurum could see that a large hulking monster resided in side the cage, half heartedly hitting its paw against the bars.

"What's that?"

"Who him?" The double asked looking at the cage.

The monster, looked like a large feline. It was probably the length of a truck and the size of a horse. The beast stopped its gentle beating against the cage when it noticed him. It rose quickly and with clang, slammed it's paws against the bars to get a better look. It's pupiless eyes were cerulean, like his. But it looked like a Grimm.

The monster stared at him, and he stared back. The black beast then did something creepy. It's fur turned from jet black to Snow White, like his hair normally was.

Then the beast pulled back its lips slowly, and unblinking gave a predatory grin that would put Freddy cruger to shame.

Creepier.

Then the monster reared back and slammed it's paws into the cage, redoubling it's efforts in escape. The cage chains that kept it suspended began to rattle loudly, and rust began to fall off of them, especially when one of them snapped.

"Ok nothing to stay around here for!" The double exclaimed, ushering Aurum in the direction of a new door that had formed.

The monster obviously didn't like that idea as it began to roar and snarl behind them. The clanging against the bars faster and ferocious in effort.

"What is that?" Aurum asked being forced through the door by the doppel.

"No one important." The double said over the clanging and roaring of the Grimm like beast.

"Uggh i hate that guy." He said closing the door quickly behind them.

"Either boring or angry, no silver lining with that guy."

…

"So they sent people after you." Yang pieced together. She remembered a sleepover they had with the Faunus, the three of them abruptly roused from their sleep, only to be pushed into a closet late at night and told stay quiet by TaiYang. She remembered hearing struggling, breaking furniture and clanging of metal, finally she remembered three gun shots that sounded like Qrow's sword, and the sound of liquid splattering on the floor, and then silence.

"They tried." Sheera responded darkly. Tai Yang and Qrow nodding with the same dark aura about them.

Yang had finally understood what those noises were after all those years. The White Fang wanted to make and Example. Who better than the one who took over half the organization? And the three of them could have been prime those who piece together who she was, never made it back to tell the others.

"I decided it was not safe there. For you or us. So we left for Vacuo. Until I was sure I had thrown them off our tail."

Ruby finally spoke up. "Sp you said that nice people do bad things. What did you mean?"

Sheera's face turned into one of sorrow.

"It's all my fault." She said putting her face in her hands.

The girls sat on either side of the woman. Comforting her just by being in her precense. Her breathing seemed to slow, but didn't loose it's choppyness as she put her arms around her cubs pulling them close.

"What those Purists did to my _babosa._ My baby…" Sheera said as she let the tears fall freely. It was like nothing she ever thought was capable by anyone.

…

"That's it!" Aurum yelled.

All this guy had been doing was pushing him through one memory through another asking him if he remembered.

Remembered what?

He could probably help more if this bastard ever explained, what he needed help with! Instead he was kept in the dark.

"Look I know your upset-"

"I'm past upset!" Aurum exclaimed.

"Everything where we go in this," he flailed his hands about to make a point. "This! It's pointless!"

"Dude I can assure you-"

"What?! As long as I blindly follow you through this shit everything will be Peaches and Cream? _Mother fucker_ I don't know where I am, what I'm doing here , what the FUCK that thing was," he exclaimed pointing to where the caged Beowulf like monster had been suspended by the chains.

The double sighed and slowly approached with his hands up to show he came In peace.

"Look-"

"No you look here Furry!" Furry. A derogatory term the humans used for Faunician people. On the bad word scale, it was as good as calling a Faunus and animal. The doubles slitted eyes widened, truly hurt. But then they relaxed, as if glazed over, like whatever the double was thinking, playtime was over and what he was going to do had been set in stone.

The human Aurum had called the Faunus double a Furry. Play time was over.

"I want to know what I'm doing here and more importantly," he snapped jabbing a finger in the doubles chest, "Who the _fuck_ are you?"

The doubles expression didn't change, the stoic face and glazed over eyes were even phased.

He took his hand and pushed back the hair to reveal the x shaped scar Aurum had on his forehead.

Aurum hated that scar. He hated that he had it, and he hated how he got it. His frustration slowly died as he saw the scar , taking steps back in confusion and - fear.

Instead of just a regular jagged scar like normal, the double had a triangular mirror shard embedded in the center of the scar.

Blood began to run from the shard, and spiderweb down the face of the double. Either he didn't notice or didn't care about the blood pouring from the scar. Not even when he, stoic and quietly slowly pulled the shard out of his forehead.

Aurum felt his fear grow in his stomach. The double had been able to show him snips and bits of memories using the mirror shards around them. If that one was embedded there then… Oh no.

He felt his actual heart begin to pound. He wanted to wake up but his outer body would not respond.

The double let the blood soaked shard float above his hand before touching a claw to it, causing to to glow red. Then disappear.

Aurum heart was a Gatling gun hammering against his ribs as he found himself back in that alley.

"No…"

To the left, that alley and exit was blocked by a hoodie donned human, his face enshrouded in the shadow of the hood. The figure was calmly yet determinedly walking- towards him.

"No…no no please." Aurum whispered.

On the right the other exit was blocked as a similar figure slowly approached, his features obscured by a hood.

The triangles weren't done with him as they quickly formed - him. 10 year old Aurum. Just a kid.

"Stop…" He turned to the double as tears streamed down his face. He didn't want to see this. He didn't want to relive this. The doubles face was hardened yet hurt.

"You wanted to know why your here." He said as if the memory disgusted him. Aurum fell to his knees as a third hood came behind him and shoved him. He covered his ears but he could still hear the sick laughter, the cries of his younger self begging for them to stop, ringing through his head. He squeezed his eyes shut as the shoves became punches, and the pushes became kicks.

"STOP IT! STOP IT!" he screamed at the humans. At the double. Anyone who would listen or put an end to this nightmare. He felt the double swiftly come behind him and put him in a full Nelson hold, forcing him to look at his worst nightmare.

Aurum kicked and screamed, his ribs crying out for him to cease his efforts. He begged and cried for the double to let him go as the humans held down the younger Aurum. He remembered the knee pressed hard into the back of his elbow as a shoe stomped on his tail.

He pleaded and begged the double apologizing repeatedly, he just wanted this nightmare to end. But somehow, he knew even though he couldn't see behind him.

The double was crying too.

And he felt him cry harder along with him, when the ringleader clad in a porcelain mask, pulled out a large metal bat.

…..

Ruby cried.

She knew she wasn't one to cry. She liked to show her sister and father and uncle, she was tough, so she didn't like to show them she cried that much. She was going to be a huntress after all.

But the news she was just given. What those Purists did to him. She didn't buried her face in Sheera's lap and cried.

Yang had covered her mouth as the tears threatened to fall from her eyes. And then proceeded to run down her face as she shook her head in disbelief.

TaiYang had put his face in his hand, while Qrow's grip tightened on his flask, his strenth threatening to crush it as easy as it would be to break a toothpick.

Purists. The human equivant of The White Fang. Only they had been around longer. They were human supremacists. Despising anything that had to do with Faunus, Faunician rights, or humans who supported the cause of equality. "Furry Lovers" they called them, received no quarter for being human either. There whole purpose: keep the humans "pure" and "purify the world of disappointments and abomination" - aka Anyone with a tail.

When they first began they struck fear into the heart of every Faunus. Not only due to them being utterly ruthless and remorseless in their endeavors, but how much support they received from the other humans, even the police who would turn a blind eye to hundreds of lynchings and murders. Hell some of the Police would join in.

It wasn't until the human body count the Purists had racked up was discovered that the world decided that this couldn't go on the way it was. Hundreds of humans lives compared to thousands of Faunus. That was when they finally stepped in. The practice of beatings and lynchings was outlawed- in public. Now small pockets of the once "great" organization remained in Remnant after the world finally saw what they were doing to humans and Faunus- but most importantly humans.

Now the Purists were about as good as White Fang to most police

They could hang up the Purist flag in their goddamned yard for all the cops cared, so long as no one was getting hurt. Publicly.

If you asked Qrow, the real animals were the Purists. At least the White Fang started out with the goal of equality, instead of trying to just raise hell.

"He was a mute for three years." Sheera sniffed collecting herself, as she calmed the crying cub in her lap with a hug.

"Purist bastards." Taiyang growled into his hand. His knuckles white from clenching his fist.

"The doctor said he had amnesia, so I thought it would be a good idea to remind him of things...before what happened." She began.

"But he got these awful headaches when I show him pictures; picture with you in them."

This caused Ruby to look up from Sheera's lap."Wh-What do you mean?"

The tigress took a deep breath and continued. "The attack had put him in a traumatic state of mind. He didn't think he could ever trust another human, and he began to resent them. Fear them even."

This caused Ruby to flinch at the comment. Her best friend, was afraid of her? She sniffled, a new wave of tears about to fall.

The tigress saw her distress and took her head in her gentle hands, so the cub could focus on what she had to say.

"Garrett came home from his missions and reminded him of how many humans were in his life, don't worry _peqinuo_." She said reassuring the cub with a peck on the forehead, bringing a small smile to her face.

But while he had at least forgave humanity as a whole, he still showed little to no mercy to the purists he and his friends came across throughout their exploring of Vacuo.

"Well," Yang said decidedly, "let's head over there. We can snap him out of it right? Just tell him who we are?"

"That brings me to our problem," Sheera began. "I tried to help his memory along, it turns out he has an amnesia form called a foog state."

"I think you mean a 'fugue state' Sher." Tai chuckled, making light of the situation. While her English was almost perfect, she still tended to miss pronounce and forget some words.

"That's how you say that?" She said before shaking her head, not dwelling on it.

"It's a type of amnesia that can cause serious damage to the brain, especially if something like recollection of memory is forced."

"Meaning…?"

"Force him to remember and his brain could reject the idea entirely."

This caused Yang to calm herself in her effort for the door, her brashness could actually make things worse. That would be a first. According to her book anyway.

"But recently he'd been talking in his sleep. Rose petals and yellow flashes and the like," Sheera inquired.

"So if we can't do anything why comeback?" Ruby asked timidly.

"Because I can't but you can." She said rubbing the girls head.

"True you cannot force memories, but you can ease them back in."

"But what can we do?"

Sheera bit her lip, a look of desperation on her face.

"You can bring my cub back."

…

 **God fucking damnit this chapter is finally finished.**

 **Apologies in advance, I had been so busy.**

 **Finals are this week and next week. Had my first this week, they end next week.**

 **So better late than never to pump out this chapter.**

 **I know I lied. Where is the lycan stuff, that's obviously what your here for, so I'm actually to the point where I can introduce it.**

 **Had to build up to it ykno?**

 **Anywho I guess I should say this, you guys know I'm always looking for OCs to stuff into the stories I write, so if your willing, shoot me a OC and I'll fit him/her in if I can.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I am. It really makes me feel hip. -I'm bringing that word back-**

 **See you in the next chapter.**

 **Take it easy. YautjaofEarth out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Hello people, Whats happening. Happy Beginning of the School year to you all. I started this chapter on the 4th, and I can only assume that I am going to finally publish it a week later or something. Apologies in advance.**

 **Ok so here's the deal so far, I went to RTX and saw the new RWBY trailer and shat myself.**

 **First off can't believe the story went from zero to 100 that quick, i mean RVB waited a few seasons before they started to truly kill people off, I mean i just met the characters last year. Pyrrha is dead, Penny is dead, and Torchwick… well who gives a fuck about Torchwick. Pyrrha is dead. Might as well call Arkos the Titanic because that ship did not only sink, it blew up, split in two, and sent millions into frigid waters as is sank to the abyss below. Sorry for that image, I'm just pretty broken up about it. And RWBY Chibi is not helping with the whole Pyrrha is back thing, fucking getting my hopes up and shit talking bout "It never happened" make up your fucking minds Kerry and Miles, END THIS TORMENT. There aint gonna be any more lightheartedness to the RWBY now, its hard to come back from a character death, not one but two protagonist deaths.**

 **Second off I was thinking how cool it would be for Aurum to show up in volume 4 if i ever got that far with this story. Honestly I'm still deciding on whether I should kill him off or not. I love my OC, but the things that I have planned for the story and the things I just put him through chapters ago guys, I just don't know.**

 **Ok to answering comments, Never done it before so bare with me.**

 **Sariman** **: *Recieves high five* thanks man, I love Doctor Who and there are going to be more clever names where that came from, If you have any names you should give them to me, I'm always looking for more.**

 **AZalmega** **: Yes Sheera is a play on Shere Khan, actually his grandfather… Never mind. But since RWBY uses fairy tale characters as bases. Honestly Aurum's entire family tree will make you say " HAH, Clever". But Sheera is not going to be a supporting character, she will a main character be doing her own thing, as Aurum progresses through school and life and shit. So be prepared to see that she can live up to the name.**

 **Secondly, I changed the hate, to fear. I had been meaning to do that, this story is not going to make Aurum out to be a tragic hero. Sure he had a tragic event in his childhood,and not to mention he will some shit problems in the story due to his makeup, and he will be wary of human interaction he'll have because he knows what they are capable of, but he's 15, and I won't make it the centerpoint of why he does anything, because he has people who helped him move on with his life. I'm not about to make a 15 year old sulk and brood. Once again the chapter took over 3 months to finish, so sometimes my motivations changed every time I got a chance to write, I will try to keep them consistent this time. I think my problem is I try to over explain things, going through every step and detail. I apologize for that but it's how I am.**

 **Also I apologize for the paragraphs being "dry and lacking" That last chapter was finished over a span of three months because I was so busy. I'm a senior in highschool, sue me.**

 **Thank you for pointing out the vocab and spacing, It's always nice to have somebody catch when you make a mistake, but I'm not going be able to get around to change every little thing.**

 **Maybe you can give me tips about the paragraphs and I'll try to have a better grasp on it. Until you do, I apologize in advance for the shit writing. If there is anyone who hates Fanfics with good plots but shit writing and rushed critical events it's me.**

 *****Ok onto the finals notes, Lycans. Yes I am an Ass, you obviously came for the Lycans. So here you go, honestly i would have put this in the other chapter but i figured it ran long enough without it.**

 **Put down your silver weapons and pitchforks, it's happening right now.**

 **One more thing : Vampires and or Lycan hunters, yes or no for this story? Because while I do have a pretty good reason as to why they both would be present in the story and it makes sense as well, Is that what people want? To see Vampires and Lycans go at it the right way? Cause honestly I could do a lot better than Twilight. Or Underworld for that matter.**

 **Leave suggestions, comments, and OC's in the review below,**

 **Thank you for all your support on this, I love you all**

 **Let's do this.**

 ***sign language***

" **Lycan voice"**

" _Faunician language"_

** _Willow talking**_

… **..**

" **Words" with friends (Part One)**

Sheera felt the sun before she saw its yellow rays through the canopy of trees outside the living room window. The first feeling she received was the stabbing in her stomach. Did she eat last night? She didn't taste anything on her tongue so the answer was no.

As she racked her brain to remember what had happened, the second feeling was was a small, eager tongue licking her cheek combined with eager whimpers and barks.

The dogs were ok. That was a good sign

She cracked an eye open, and was greeted by an excited puppy, bounding this way and that to rouse her from her impromptu resting place.

Brutus. Garrett's dog. A czechoslovakian Wolfdog he got from on the way home from a freelancer mission in near Atlas.

It was good for her to wrack her brain after her time of the month. Especially if she hadn't eaten the night before. Remembering drowned out the immense hunger pangs.

Brutus barked happily and did a jump round in the air, as she sat up, the puppy happy to have another person to play with.

Wait a minute. Why was she in the living room? She should have been in the basement. Locking her up was- Aurum's job….

She panicked briefly, putting her muzzle to the air sniffing the air with her heightened senses searching for her cubs scent.

She didn't have to search far, as he was below her, the other two dogs atop and against him on the couch. Once more she panicked before the memories of how he got there flooded back to her. She had never attacked him when she was like this and she was thankful that the injuries he had on him were not her doing.

She slowly began to piece together what happened last night. Her _Babosa_ was unconscious so he couldn't lock her up in the basement, she went to the Taiyang and Qrow to talk to her girls.

Another hunger pang went ignored by the tigress. She remembered making a quick goodbye due to the moon as red as blood rose slowly into sky. She should have paid more attention to Qrow as he kept gesturing to the window. She hated to arrive with only bad news and then flee immediately after, but she had forgotten what day it was in the heat of the moment and lost track of time.

She remembered making it home but the rest was foggy. She looked down at the dogs. Her dog, the Brown and black German shepherd Garrett picked up from Minstral, Krati, lay against her cub, paws on his uninjured side.

Aurum's dog ,their Tibetian Mastiff, Ronin, the second dog Garrett brought home from a Faunician village near Vale, lay across his legs stiffly, ready to defend if need be. The two older dogs watched her intently, should she not be in her right mind, but their tails flicked back and forth, ready to greet her if she was her normal self.

She sighed. She must've done something to them last night. She hoped she didn't scare them too badly.

 ***What happened last night…***

Krati lay at the feet of Aurum, not doing anything in particular just waiting. She watched as her companion Ronin, tolerated the pup's antics, bounding to and fro in attempts to get the mastiff to play. Ronin had just spent the last hour play fighting with the Wolfdog and seemed to have had enough of the pups seemingly endless amounts of energy.

Understandable. She knew her friend. Aside from following orders from the other two legs, the mastiff was pretty much a relaxed dog. Maybe even lazy. The only person he had endless energy for aside from her was currently bloody and asleep on the couch.

She loved the boy as well, as much as she loved his bearer, but Sheera had left. But she'd be back. They all were always back. She didn't know why she had to go, especially when on the night like this.

Krati had become smart enough to memorize the nights on which the strangest things happened to her bestfriend. She would disappear for unknown reasons and not return until the next day, covered in dirt and to tired to play, but that was ok, they all settled for cuddling with her.

From the living room she could hear the front door quickly open, and slam just as fast. Everyone perked up, she looked to Ronin and Brutus, and pulled her lips into a grin. Sheera was home.

Any thought to what night it was left from her mind. As she dashed behind the puppy to meet her friend at the door. She was home! She is never home on this night. It was always either Aurum or Sheera telling her and her companions to stay and then they disappear into the night. It must be a special occasion! It has to be!

Ronin was the first to make it to the door way, but slowed as soon as he reached her. He nudged Brutus to slow as well. Why do they slow? No matter. More for her!

Krati soon slowed as well as she got to look as her best friend. Sheera's face was slick with sweat and her cane clattered on the floor as she tried to hold herself up against the door. Ronin being the bravest and strongest, slowly approached and sniffed to see if she needed help. Sheera seemed to have not noticed them until now, and jumped at the sight of them.

Krati turned her head. Why does she jump? She was ready to play right?! Did she want to play hide and seek again? Did they win already? That's why she jumped isn't it? They had caught her! All these senarios running through her head caused her tail to wag furiously. She barked to get her friends attention.

Sheera jumped again, and then made for the stairs and sprinted to her room. The companions exchanged looks. Sheera never came in without greeting them. They heard her pained groan before the door closed. CT was caring, if her friend was hurt she had to be there. Ronin barked for her to wait, but something wasn't right.

But little did she know this was a problem she could only make worse.

Brutus' curiousity was what brought the trio to the Tigresses' bedroom door. The sound of clothes tearing and sound of muffled snapping bones were drowned out by howls and groans of pain inside the room. Krati and Ronin leapt into action.

Was she hurt, was someone inside there with her? Was she eating ribs? She always saved a couple bones for them, she couldn't eat them all by herself! Was she tearing up her clothes? That didn't seem right. Sheera can tear up her clothes but she got mad when Krati did it?

Ronin stood on his hind legs and used his muzzle to turn the handle. Brutus was the first inside, caution to the wind with the pup. Inside Krati saw the cause of the noise, an overturned lamp, and a tattered and torn suit on the ground was the first inclination to something wrong. Sheera didn't like it when they broke something or tore clothes. Usually they had to sleep outside when that happened.

Brutus completely ignored all signs of danger, still happy that Sheera had come home to play. And on top of that, they were going to play with bigger Sheera! Brutus had yet to figure out how she did it, one second she normal then the next she was bigger and covered in fur, with a muzzle like his! At first he was afraid but when Aurum and Garrett didn't run or bark at her he discovered it was more fun to play with her this way. While he loved Garrett, and while Aurum could run on all fours like he could, Sheera could do the same; but she could keep up longer. He paid no mind to the groans or popping and snapping that seemed to come from the giant cat woman's body. All he knew was that a friend had returned. And she was getting ready to play.

Ronin didn't approach. Something was definitely wrong, he just couldn't put a paw on it. Usually when Sheera became the big cat, it just happened, easily; like making off with one of Garrett's socks. But these noises Sheera made; it was like it was hurting. He had learned as a pup that there was nothing to fear from this side of their friend. But something was wrong. She always left when the almighty shattered rock in the sky turned red, so why come home now?

The tigress whirled around, claws unsheathed, and glistening in the red light of the fractured rock outside the window. Her posture for one was not right. Instead of standing straight like Aurum she was hunched and spread out, with the gait similar to the black beasts. Her face was not her own. The tigress would smile and growl and sometimes snarl at the trio during play, but instead her muzzle was bearing rows of razor canines and drool poured from them. Her hair, wild and unruly draped down her back and over her collar bones, her pelt usually smooth and kept, looked matted and unruly and smelled of blood and sweat.

But her eyes! Her orangish green eyes. The whites had turned black.

Something was definitely wrong.

Ronin slowly approached the puppy, who yipped and barked happily, not sensing the danger the mastiff did.

The tigress's blackened eyes trained on the pup, and a tongue ran across her black, drool covered lips.

Something told Ronin she wasn't going to play tag with them.

Barking at Krati before snatching the pup by the scruff of his neck in his jaws, Ronin dashed out the into the hall just before the tigress's claws could eviscerate the wolfdog.

His claws clattering against the wood floors as he ran down the hall to the stairs carrying the puppy, who had just now realized something was wrong.

As he slid towards the stairs he turned just in time to see Krati leapt out of the room, plant her paws on the adjacent wall, and push off it, landing on one of the pelt rugs, sliding the dog down the hall before hopping off and dashing down the hall towards them.

Not far behind was Sheera, not as agile in larger than normal stripe cat form, she slammed shoulder first into the wall after her. Her eyes not filled with friendship and fun, but as a predator viewed its prey; except this time it wasn't fun.

The tigress let out a roar before charging down the hallway. The trio went down the stairs as fast as they could, thankful that the tigress in her blind fury slipped on the pelt and missed the stairs, carrying her further down the hall towards Aurum's room.

Ronin thought fast, this was why they always left on this night. Sheera wasn't the playful cat woman this time, if anything she was acting like one of the two legged black wolves back in Vacuo. They needed to get away, the needed an out.

A clawed hand gripped the wall near the railing. The tigress had recover quicker than they thought she would. Her darkened eyes trained on the trio as drool poured from her rows of fangs. Ronin hoped she didn't damage anything in Aurum's room- there wasn't a big enough newspaper to scold her with.

Wait- Aurum! That's it! He goes with her, but he comes back ok! He has to be awake now right?! He's so smart, he'd know what to do!

Putting down the pup long enough to bark his plan to Krati, he sprinted underneath the stairs into the living room. Just before the tigress leapt from the railing and landed heavily onto the floor below, blocking Krati from her companion.

She roared at the pup and mastiff behind her, but was cut off as CT snapped at her leg. She wasn't allowed to play that rough with friends, but this was an emergency. Her best friend wasn't thinking right, and they needed Aurum to snap her out of it.

Now that she had the Tigresses attention, she had to follow through.

Krati dashed away from the entrance to the living room and into the lounge, the tiger following not too far behind. She sprinted whenever she could, the carpet on the lounge could only cover so much ground before the wooden floor was back under her feet. CT felt the white talons of her pursuer graze her backside, letting out a Yelp as she made a hard left back out into the hallway.

That was too close a call and she did not want to press her luck any further. Krati made many dodges and weaves through the rooms of the mansion, and making too many close calls to boot.

She couldnt keep this up, Ronin had to have woken Aurum by now right? She darted into the living room and to her horror, Ronin was still trying to wake the boy. Licking, pushing on him, and barking wasn't working.

And they were out of time.

The tigress came through the doorway of the living room, snarling at the trio. Krati and Brutus backed away to the wall, whimpering at what had become of her friend. Ronin however stayed atop Aurum, his teeth bared and his eyes glaring defiance.

The tigress turned her attention towards the two dogs in the corner; easier prey.

Now sensing the threat had turned towards his fellow companions, Ronin leapt off the couch and began to snap at the Tigresses legs, to slow her attack if only a little.

Their friend roared, in what seemed to be more out of annoyance than pain, and with a flick of her paw, batted the 156 pound dog off her leg and against the couch with a heavy thud.

Krati backed the puppy against the wall, and placed herself in between her friend and her companion. She tried to make herself look bigger, barking and snapping her jaws at Sheera, but she had easily bested Ronin; meaning all the times they played she was faking the whole time. What could she do?

She stared down the drooling jaws of the tigress and into the clouded eyes of her friend, once filled with intelligence and joy, replaced by malicious intent and a one drive goal. Food.

There was nothing she could do.

She watched as her friend stood over them raising her paw, her ivory white claws, glistening in the red moon light, extended to their full length. CT was always ready to fight; it was her job, but she wasn't ready to fight her best friend. She couldn't do it.

She whimpered as the claws slashed towards her at a near blinding speed, ready for the worst. Until the smallest noise, stopped the razor sharp claws inches from her hide.

A dry, ragged cough from the couch. Krati's eyes darted towards the couch behind the tigress. Ronin staggered to his paws, but he hadn't made a sound. It came from the Faunus on the couch.

The Tigers head swung heavily around to the direction of the sound.

Aurum, still asleep, writhing in pain. The two dogs looked from the boy to the huge tigress in the living room, and feared the worst. Their very own predatory mentality put against them: weak prey is easy prey.

The tiger pivoted on her paw and slowly padded over towards her injured cub, her talons clicking against the stone floor as she neared him. Ronin sprang to his paws, teeth bared and snapping at the huge tiger. Krati had always admired his loyalty, even when fighting an uphill battle, Ronin was not one to back down for the sake of his family. Even if his family was the problem.

Krati barked for the pup to remain where he was, she didn't like the idea of leaving him unattended, especially with a their friend currently a large, bloodthirsty, two legged tiger, but Ronin needed her help and right now the Wolfdog would get in the way, if not get them killed all together.

He wasn't ready.

The tiger bared her teeth back at the Mastiff, about to pounce before Krati rushed to his side, ready to protect their friend.

Another ragged groan from Aurum on the couch, caused the tigress to stop snarling, and a cough made her slowly pull her fangs back behind her muzzle.

The dogs were confused to say the least, as the tigress lowered herself to all fours, and slowly began to walk towards her cub. She didn't wince when Brutus, in his first brave act of the night, bit her calf and held on for a few moments, nor did she even seem to notice or care when Ronin gave her warning snarls, and snapped at her muzzle.

The tigress' attention was now 100 percent on her cub. Whether she saw him as prey or as her cub, they didn't know. Krati took only one step back in case the tigress made any sudden movements, but to give her space as well. Krati's bearer wanted to not be disturbed when spending time with Krati so she understood the half of the situation.

Ronin had stopped growling, yet kept his fangs bared and aimed at the Tigers throat; if worst came to worst.

The hulking tigeress stood before her cub, and put her muzzle near his face. Krati stared into the tigresses eyes. They whites were still black, but they held no malice, no desire to hunt. These were focused eyes. Intelligent. They were a mother's eyes.

They were Sheera's eyes.

Her cubs face was one of pain, and he groaned of agitation as he clutched his flank.

Sheera's muzzle can nose to nose with his, taking several sniffs of her cub. She gave a chuff, but he did not respond. The tigress sniffed again, and pushed his head gently with her muzzle, only for his head to limply return to where it laid.

It was when she opened her mouth, that Ronin and Krati bared their fangs at her.

She gave a soft snort, climbed above the him by the entrance to the living room and rested her muzzle on her paws.

The dogs pulled their fangs behind their lips and watched the tiger. Her tail lazily swished back and forth, and her ears occasionally twitched this way and that, but the tigress remained where she was, just watching her cub.

Eventually they dogs relaxed when sleep finally took the hulking cat woman.

…

Sheera gave a sigh of relief. She was glad both her cub and the dogs were alright.

Brutus backed up as she sat up and cracked her shoulder and neck muscles. The Wolfdog approached carefully as she stretched her hand towards him and waited, not wanting to startle him or the other two. If she had given them any trouble last night, the best thing to do was to play nice and make up. They always loved to play with her in this form, so the fact that they were all holding back on approach and guarding her cub gave her the inclination that she had almost fucked up royally last night.

The puppy sniffed her finger pads before finally licking them, and biting and nuzzling her fingers like he always did. She another sigh, this time one of relief as Krati hopped off the couch and sat next to her, and Ronin visibly relaxed on Aurum's legs.

" **I'm sorry I scared you little one .** **"** She softly as she could told the dogs, who in response licked her hand and her cheek.

Her smile faded as another pang of hunger hit her hard. She bit back a growl as she had just had made up with the dogs, and didn't want to startle them any further than she might have already.

Through her pain, Sheera looked down at her son on the couch, listening to his ragged breath as she studied the dried blood on his face. She wanted to wait on him to awaken, but another pang of hunger shot through her. Her instinct was in overdrive as her maternal instinct to stay with her cub, fought against her hunger and own survival. She had not eaten since yesterday morning due to the nervousness of talking to the Ruby and Yang, and now she was paying the price for it. It took a lot of energy to transform and last night costed her energy she didn't have. So she was faced with a decision that should've been easy, but her instinct made it all the more difficult to decide. Go feed herself or stay and risk starvation.

Luckily for her hunger was forgotten once more as her cub began to stir.

…

Aurum walked with his duplicate down a hallway in his mind, the shards of mirror more concentrated in the small space gently brushing against his skin. The hallway was darkened to the point of low visiblity but not complete darkness. He and his double, in comfortable silence passed several doors with labels on them. To name a few they passed:

 _Freestyle Rap : self taught_

 _Drawing : supervisor : missing info_

 _Musical interests and skills - supervisor : Velvet Scarlatina_

 _Guitar electric and acoustic - supervisor : Sheera Khan, Garrett Striker_

 _Piano playing : Auntie G, Velvet Scarlentina_

 _Free Running/Parkour - Supervisor : Sun Wukong_

 _Chess playing- Uncle O_

 _Lock picking- self taught_

 _Pickpocketing - note: Sun Wukong is no longer supervisor_

 _Boner Inducers 1 - classified "person"el *giggity* only_

To name a few.

He made a face and shook his head at that last one. His couldn't believe his own thoughts could embarrass him until now. Well not on this degree. This was boarderline insanity. Every door they passed was labeled, every skill and talent he had aquired in his life. Basically what made Aurum- Aurum.

"This is the central Hub as you can see," the double explained as they passed more doors. The further down this door filled hall they went, the more grotesque the doors became. While unchanged in their simple design, the more black ooze he had seen from earlier; that had controlled that family, appeared to spiderweb acrossed the doors. Some doors had small amounts of ooze, others were covered in it, while some remained clean as the other doors.

The ooze covered doors produced small tentacles that sprouted weakly as they walked past, and then drooped as they cleared the perimeter of them.

"This shit," the double continued, "wants to change you. Corrupt your thoughts and memories."

"So what happens if it does?" Aurum asked worried.

" _My guess is as good as yours_ ," the double replied.

"Then why not leave it alone?" Aurum asked. "Don't we risk making something worse?"

The double turned and looked at him as if to say "really?"

"Your not thinking this through, what happens if we don't? This is already messing with your mind, we don't need it to be any more physical than it already is."

Putting a hand on his shoulder he sighed. "We're not like them."

"I'm listening to a voice in my head, I think I'm pretty close."

The double's tail flicked and his eye twitched before he pulled back his lips and growled.

"That's no reason to just ignore this. We ignore what doctors say because, cmon it's us. " the two shared a chuckle before the double regained seriousness.

"But when you tell yourself something, you can only say it because somewhere deep down you know it's true."

He moved out of the way to show Aurum a large glass orb, suspended by hundreds of tiny glass stems. The orb glowed all sorts of colors, from blues to greens to yellows, swirling and pulsing in its radiance. Yet in all its radiance, it was fragmented. Large chunks and shards of the orb lay on the ground in front of the stems. Some of the stems however were stained with black ooze. Some dripped with it, some had a few flecks of ooze, while others had ooze caked on the stems. A strand of ooze snaked its way up to the orb, but was burned by the radiance and retreated; only a little ways however.

"This is killing you," the double stated walking behind Aurum. "Maybe not physically but up here." He said jabbing a claw into his temple.

"Maybe we shouldn't tamper with it? Best course of action huh?" Aurum asked sarcastically. Honestly he didn't know what would happen if they were to mess up anything in here.

"It's already affecting your memory. What next?" The double growled.

"You become like one of them? Your already one of them! Hell if it wasn't for me, you'd probably be in a hospital bed right now blowing spit bubbles and chewing on your tongue!" He snarled.

Aurum took a step back, the doubles words hit home. But what could he do? He would be walking a fine line, all this talk of memories, how it was important to regain them, but at the same time if he learned them to fast… He could completely shatter his mind?

The double sighed and approached him.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not your enemy, and I understand the risk we'd be taking. But this I want what's best for you, _shit_ I want what's best for me! I know you're worried, I am too. But the worst thing we can do is wait for something to happen, and let this fester and get worse. Who knows what another knock on the head could do, especially if it's worse than the last?"

Aurum nodded repeatedly, the words seeping in, he wanted to do this, if he couldn't, he'd probably never be able to achieve his goals. At least ones he could accomplish before he had to leave.

He turned to the double, a spark in his eye.

"Where do we start?"

The doppelgänger gave a determined smile, his slitted eyes filled with renewed energy. He reached around and gripped Aurum shoulder and pointed to the fragmented orb.

"We live your life. We're back home. Back in Patch. I can guide you through places to see if anything jogs your memory and I can keep the monsters at bay when you do."

He stood in front of Aurum, his scarred forehead close enough the human side's smooth one.

"We can put ourself back together. We can be whole again."

He let go and began to skip in a wide circle laughing as the hallway dissipated around them. He made the full circle when he came back around and gripped Aurum each other's elbows and shook In agreement.

"So let's get to it." He grinned as the very world itself burst into millions upon millions of mirror shards. Then it went black.

…..

Aurum groaned hoarsely as he opened his eyes. Correction- eye. The right one was wrapped in what he suspected was gauze, and it throbbed like hell. Then his left side hit him like a tram. Using his good eye he looked around slowly and realized he was in his living room.

The living room was a large room that had with four steps of limestone stairs that had been cut out into the living area. The cut out area was shaped like a large circle and had a built in couch on either side of the steps. On the walls above the couch were well lit shelves that house picture frames, artifacts and Faunician weapons alike. The fourth wall across from the couch was completely open to the forest behind their house. Glass as large as the entire wall had been installed to give the patrons a beautiful view of the stream and trees all year round. Two steps gave the lead onto what could be described as a stage, so that patrons could stand in front of the window and get a good view.

He looked around the room, and tried to move his legs, but found a weight atop of them. With his good eye he looked down to notice Ronin lying atop his legs with a look of happy expectation. A yip and the click of claws on the floor. Aurum turned his head to see Brutus, both paws on the edge of the couch, and his tail wagging furiously as he watched his friend wake from his sleep.

He then heard a voice, deep and rumbling but at the same time feminine and soft like a purr.

" **So your awake now hmm** _ **mi amore?"**_

It was his mothers voice. Well- her other voice.

With a hoarse grunt he turned his head to face the back of the couch and looked up. A large orange and black tigress sat cross legged above the couch watching him with concern.

It was Sheera. Any human -hell any normal person would've screamed, but this was nothing new for him, he'd found out the family secret when he was 4.

Studying Sheera's face he noticed a mix of emotion. Her greenish orange eyes gave a look of soft happiness as she looked him over, while also concern was there as well and her muzzle was wrinkled in pain yet in a poor attempt to hide it, a smile of pearly white fangs.

He realized she had slept there all night given her state of bed… body? When you're covered in fur from ear to paw, bed head doesn't usually cut the description of what you look like when you wake up.

Aurum remembered it was his job to lock her up, and given the fact that she was nervous about… something, she hasn't eaten since yesterday morning. There was food for this situation in the kitchen, yet she stayed with him all night?

She was killing herself watching over him.

With a wheezed sigh he shifted as best he could. Why did one of these times she have to be selfless? Sure it was all in good fun and jokes when she wasn't but when lives are on the line generally self preservation is in the thought process. It didn't have to be acted upon, but it had to be there.

Sometimes he wondered if his condition made Sheera like that. How she cared more about his well being than hers. He hated it when she did that at the expense of her own health. He didn't like to be a burden.

Her instincts were currently in overdrive and the maternal ones were telling her to stay with him, so he couldn't blame her for this one.

He opened his mouth to ask her where he was but as soon as he uttered the first syllable he began to hack and cough in pain. His throat was scratchy and dry, and it felt like he had swallowed a handful of glass shards.

Ronin hopped off his legs and came round to his head, sniffing in concern. Krati and Brutus also shifted their weight in concern.

Aurum heard the movement of something large, and the clicks of claws on stone floors. When he recovered from his Oum awful cough, and clutched his side, he opened his eyes to the area above the couch vacant of tigresses. Sheera had leapt over the couch and knelt at his side, with the concern of any mother.

He felt the pads on her clawed fingers reassuring him as she slid her arm underneath his back.

" **Don't speak** ," she told him as she propped her injured cub up against her body. She then put her hands in front of him and formed them into sign.

*use your hands* she told him, to which he paused, wheezed a sigh, and then signed *ok*.

An easy feat, and a welcome one after her cub fell mute after his run in with the Purists. Sign language was actually Qrow's idea. Sheera gave a fanged grin to her cub, the drunk was good for some ideas after all.

" **How do you feel? I heard you got a little more than you expected yesterday.** "

*Like shit*

" **I bet** ,"

*My Ribs hurt*

" **I will patch you up later Babosa, I am just glad you are still in one piece.** "

The tigress told her cub brushing the hair out of his face.

A number was really done on him yesterday, his face was covered in dried blood and… oil? Her hunger forgotten in place of maternal instinct, the tigress brought her muzzle to her son's cheek.

Not being able to see out of one eye, Aurum flinched as he felt Sheera's tongue on his cheek. It wasn't that it was uncommon, it was just that he didn't see it coming. Literally. He relaxed as he felt her firm yet soft, warm tongue drag against his cheek, cleaning off the blood that was making him feel grimy earlier. Living with a Shifter (as he had heard others call themselves) this was the equivalent of a mother human fixing her sons hair, and like a human boy, he would never let her do this in public. Besides, he didn't mind it, he had grown accustomed to it anyway, and in his condition there was little he could do to stop her.

She pulled back from cleaning her sons face, and smiled.

" **There he is, just making sure I got the right cub.** "

He smiled weakly but was soon in dulled pain in his side as the tigress faltered and lurched forward. When he weakly groaned in protest, she stopped herself by holding her arm against the couch. Aurum may not have seen her out of his gauze covers eye , but he certainly heard and felt the loud rumble in her stomach.

" _ **I'm sorry**_! **Are you ok** _**Babosa**_?" She strained. He turned his head to look at her pained face. The whites eyes were turning black again, and the beast was regaining control. Her instinct had told her to stay instead of save herself, which was obviously the wrong choice. It was only a matter of time before she, in an effort to save herself and still protect her wounded cub, do something drastic. Like find a close, and easy food source.

He watched as the dogs all looked attentive, yet relaxed. That was not happening. He needed to feed her, she had put her needs aside to take care of him, now it was time for him to return the favor.

He gently pushed from her hold, and tried to sit up, his ribs groaned in protest, causing him to fall back onto the couch. Sheera grunted and gave a soft growl before sniffing and licking her son. He needed to hurry, he was losing her.

He forced himself up into a sitting position, the pain medication was doing its job, but that wasn't enough to keep his ribs from screaming at him. He gave one final push and forced himself onto his feet, stumbling slightly to his blind side. He quickly and frantically felt for something to grab onto was saved by something soft yet and hard.

Aurum turned his head to see that he was using Sheera as his support. It always had amazed him how impressive she was in this her shifted form. Standing at her full height of at least 6'7 she towered above him. She was a combination of strength and beauty, her stripes accentuating every curve. Her once straight legs had become digitigrade, and her calf and thigh muscles pushed against her skin and newly grown fur. Her body was taught and firm and enough fur grew around her sensitive area to keep her modest. Her abdomen was something to be desired, as she like in her smaller form sported a well defined musculature. Her biceps and forearms were large yet feminine, and fur grew round her forearms. He head and shoulders were draped in a currently matted ,unruly mane that was her hair, which grew down past her sternum in a V shape, to keep her modest but at the same time, the crevice and outsides of her attractive breasts barely visible.

While her body still retained feminine curves and voluptuous hips, she was a predator, built for the kill. And she was hungry.

Aurum got his bearings on his feet and turned to the companions. Ronin, Krati, and even Brutus all looked at him expectantly.

The support he was leaning against let out a low rumble that he could feel through his arm.

' _Probably not the best idea.'_ Aurum thought snapping his fingers and pointing down. The trio lay down and relaxed. They knew he meant for them to stay where they were. It would be better for all their sakes if they weren't in the way.

It wasn't a problem walking up the few stairs of the den. His side was hurt, not his legs. What was the problem was that Sheera who had not ceased her instinctual fawning over her injured cub, insisted on walking up each step with him. Her frame was large, and even more so on as she walked on all fours, and the gauze on his eye prevented him from seeing where she was going to be on the steps, resulting in him stumbling into her slightly to have his mother inspect and fawn over him once more.

When Aurum finally made it up the stairs. He was tired.

' _Four fucking steps. And I'm tired. This woman needs food and needs it now.'_

He managed to squeeze past Sheera and out the den entrance and made a left down the hall to the kitchen. He couldn't see out of his right eye, but from the sound of it, Sheera switched to two legs, he also guessed from the heat of her breathing down his neck.

He sighed and pressed his arm to his side , not wanting to break stride either, lest she think something was wrong.

They came to a large open room. It was the dining room. A large long table that was capable of seating 10 or more. At the end of the table, there was a complete covering and wrap of plastic on the table end and chair.

Aurum cut through the dining room to have more mobility and space to walk, which was a surprise to Sheera who had to change her direction and stand on two legs to avoid the mess of knocking something over.

Aurum opened a door leading from the dining room to the kitchen. He spied what he was after ; a door off the refrigerator.

The Skin room, as they had soon come to call it for lack of a better name.

He approached the door and pulled the handle. Inside was a poorly lit room, as Aurum nor Sheera truly needed a light source. They brought anything they took down to the room, they could use the meat for food, and lycan resources, and sell the pelts for extra income. Everything from the smallest rabbit, to (in Sheera's case) the largest bear, went through the skin room before going into the house. There was a desk with heavy duty clamps, knives of different shapes, and hooks. In the far corner there was racks for stretching hides, next to a bucket of salt for drying out the hides of their kills.

Hooks that hung the kills from the ceiling of the room while they skinned them, completed the look of making it look like it belonged to a serial killer or psychopath .

He moved to the center of the room, to his most recent kill. A sanbar deer. Nature Documentaries told them that actual tigers viewed Sanbar as favorite meals.

Aurum honestly had to agree. The meat if done right was tasty and juicy and warm and- he stopped himself. He hadn't eaten since yesterday either. But he could worry about himself later. There was still the matter of the 6'7 tiger woman, rapidly growing more feral by the minute outside the Skin room.

The buck he had brought down a day prior to his… incident, was a good size, around 160 or 170 lbs and freshly skinned. Aurum hoarsely grunted and strained as he lifted the buck of the hook by its legs. No small feat given that the deer weighted more than him and that he was doing it one handed.

Sheera as soon as he emerged from the room crouched, and immediately began sniffing him, and checking for any new damage to his body. Aurum loved his mother, and had always loved to see her in this form, but he had never knew that his _Togre Ista_ , could come off as annoying.

When he emerged with the sanbar in tow, Sheera immediately stopped her sniffing and froze, staring at the kill. Aurum watched her, or more specifically, the drool running from her muzzle. To someone who had never dealt with one of her kind before, they would probably run in fright due to her matted feral appearance, Aurum however had been dealing with this since he was four. If she wanted to rip into it here, he wouldn't stop her, be he would not be cleaning anything up in his condition. Half because he couldn't, half because he straight up didn't want too.

When she did nothing for a few minutes but dart her eyes from him and back to the kill, he continued to drag the buck through the kitchen to the dining room. Drooling tigress in groaning and mooing closely behind.

He dragged the kill to the table, and with pained groan managed to sling the kill onto the plastic wrapped part of the table. Sheera sat back on her haunches, her tail flicking this way and that as she eyed the deer. Aurum brushed the hair out of his eye. Sheera still darted back and forth from the kill and her cub.

He had not eaten, and he was weak. Her instincts told her. My cub must regain his strength.

' _Cmon, you haven't eaten since yesterday. You need to regain your strength.'_ Aurum mentally pleaded.

Sheera grunted and retched before licking her chops and opened and closed her jaws at him with a chuff.

Aurum's eye narrowed in annoyance. Fucking lycans and their care for their was killing herself for him, couldn't she fucking neglect her child for a bite to eat?

He sighed and realized he wouldn't win unless she was satisfied. He walked over to the deer and leaned over above the deers neck. He picked a sensitive area of muscle and sank his fangs into it. Warm liquid filled his mouth and soothed the dry scratchy feeling, as he bit off a chunk of the sanbar's neck. This was nothing new. A Faunician stomach could digest and process into energy more than what humans could, bones included, and raw meat had been easy since he was six.

He pulled away from the kill, and watched Sheera as he chewed. It seemed to be enough for the tigress, she was no longer looking at him, but staring at the kill with a low growl in her throat. With a snarl she gripped the sanbar and sank her fangs into its stomach cavity and tore out the heart. The healthiest part of any kill disappeared as quickly as it came, past her lips and down her throat with a loud gulp. The tigress let out a happy groan, as she finally had food in her, before clamping down on the ribs, the sound of snapping bones filling the dining room.

Aurum smiled softly as Sheera finally began to eat, then turned and made his way out of the dining room, though the hall, and up the stairs.

He really felt bad that he wasn't there to safely secure Sheera, but honestly he just wanted to forget yesterday even happened.

He passed a deer pelt that had been bunched up by the stairs, next to what looked to be toe claw marks on the floor going down to his room. He could move a pelt or rug to cover the scratches but he honestly gave less than two _shits_ at this moment. The pain medication was wearing off, he smelled like char and ash, his coat, his favorite coat, had been reduced from something from absolute badassery to a scorched and tattered shit colored shawl. His ribs hurt and throbbed like hell, and he couldn't see out of his right eye, and the cut on the corner of his mouth was nothing short of annoying.

It was that girl's fault. It was all her fault.

He stalked into his room, grabbed a pair of basketball shorts and underwear and headed to the bathroom down the hall.

Looking at himself in the mirror made him only more agitated with his situation. He had carefully managed to strip off his coa- excuse him- the charred _remnants_ of his coat, and examined his body.

His Carmel brown skin was fine, save for a large purple splotch on his left ribs. He wanted to gag, but the way his throat felt it probably wasn't the best idea. It was like one of those pimple popping videos Sun dared him to watch on FaceTube; you want to look away but you just… can't. Honestly how his ribs hadn't caved in due to a punch like that from a Behemoth, he couldn't believe his luck. His stripes were still visible against the purple area of his ribs. He tentatively reached down to touch the purple splotch, a decision he immediately had only brushed the area but it felt like he had been punched. He would have cried out had his throat not protested with a punch of its own.

He managed to loose the rest of his clothing before taking a very careful shower, adjusting the temperature every so often when turning his bruise to it.

 _It was all her fault. All of this was her fault._

** I'm sure there is a reason why she did this**

Aurum nearly slipped and killed himself when he jumped.

He whirled round to see who had said what he'd heard. But he couldn't find anyone.

 _Who said that?_ He thought. He didn't expect to get answer. "wHo Sa-ACK!" The boy's protest was short lived as he went into another pain filled coughing fit.

**You did**

 _The double guy? From my dream?_

 _*_ *Present and accounted for** he heard the double say from his head.

 _Oh Maker no._ Aurum thought as he let his forehead hit the wall. _I knew this was how it would start. The beginning of the end._

**Dude what?** he heard double scoff. The voice scoffed.

 _I'm hearing voices. This is how it starts._

 _**Ok, first off your hearing a_ _voice_ _not voices. Big difference.**_

Aurum completely numb to what the voice was saying at the moment continued his complaining.

 _Next thing I know I'm shooting up a tram station because you told me too. Then it's off to the loony bin for a nice warm straight jacket._

 _**...**_

…

 _**Dude the fuck is wrong with me?**_

 _I'm a Schizophrenic! You ass!_

 _** Woah! Woah! Calm down! Dude once again if you remember the magazine we read, schizophrenia isn't usually the cause of hearing voices.**_

 _Oh great so I have something different that we haven't classified yet. Perfect._

 _**Ok all this self abuse is a little hurtful. Look dude, I don't want to get us in anymore trouble than usual. I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to harm you, I want to be whole again. And I know you do too.**_

Aurum was silent as he let the water run down his back. He didn't know how to respond to this situation because he was sure no one had dealt with something like this. He had heard stories of voices in people's heads, they never ended well. It was always one of those " it could never happen to me " situations. And it just happened to him.

 _What do you want?_

** _To be whole again. With you. I feel like I am you, but I've been separated, like I've been… knocked loose or something. I still am you remember? We just covered all this, like, an hour ago?**_

 _No body snatching?_

 _**If your implying that I'm gonna try to take over like in those stories, your wrong dude. I'm pretty content with where I am right now. Why would I want to take over myself anyway? Look you're the Maker's pixie dust driving the skeleton wrapped in a meat suit. I'm just along for the ride.**_

 _So you can really help me?_

 _**We covered all of this, yes.**_

 _So am I gonna have to deal with you all day?_

 _** Meh, probably not, if there is a location or a certain person or thing you need to remember without disturbing our… demons,**_ Aurum touched the scar on his forehead.

** _I'd be happy to help, until then I pretty much know everything you do. Eh, if it makes you feel better, I'll pop up when it's convenient for us. Talking like this puts a strain on me.**_

Seemed like Aurum had gotten the lazy part of himself knocked loose.

 _What do I call you?_

 _** Hmmm, hadn't thought of that yet… maybe we should take care of that right now, so you can stop referring to me as 'you' or 'hey' or 'that devilishly handsome motherfucker**_

Aurum smirked as he thought of something to call his… other half?

He thought for a moment as he pushed his wet hair out of his eyes and carefully sitting down as the water pushed his ears down against the top of his head. He thought of a name.

** _No_ **

Aurum blinked. _But I didn't even-_

 _**No, you are not naming me after the one of the Achieve Men- especially Ryan**_

Aurum scoffed this time as he washed his body.

 _Why not?_

 _**Dude I'm not sure how much you remember but if you can recall his stage name is 'The Mad King'.**_

 _So?_

 _**While everybody knows the tiger is the real king of the jungle, wouldn't you just be proving your own point in calling me- part of you- mad?**_

 _Fine._ He thought angrily, as he scrubbed his tail soap and a brush. When he thought of another name, he had just finished putting a fine lather on his tail.

 _How about-_

 _** No to this too!**_

 _Aww cmon what's the problem?_

 _**You ain't naming me Geoff!**_

 _Why not the facial hair on that man is fantastic?!_

 _** I refuse! That sounds stupid as fuck! Aurum and Geoff. Hey! I have a voice in my head- his name is Geoff!**_

 _I think its funny._

 _**Nobody spells Geoff like that!**_

 _He does._

 _**He doesn't count!**_

 _Calm down Geoff,_ Aurum said wheezing in laughter, as he rinsed his tail. _It'll grow on you._

Laughing at a conversation with himself. He really was schizophrenic.

** _Mutha fucka I'm in your head. I'm in your dreams bitch, you will get no sleep! None! I will drive you to an early_ _grave-_ _**_

 _Alright, alright! I'll pick something else._

 _**No Achieve Men!**_

…

 _**...**_

 _Not even Ray?_

 _**We are not worry to bear that name.**_

 _Alright fine._

He began to focus more on cleaning his left arm, he stared at his intricatly marked arm, which was ever painful to lift above his head. It was that girl's fault. He couldn't hide himself like this. He could have gotten through the year at least without any problems. Now he was in no position to keep up a ruse. They would make prey out of him. Aurum hung his head. He'd be human prey.

 _**Wait what did you say**_

Aurum rolled his eye.

 _If you're really me you'd remember._

 _**Of course I'm just remembering that song. Ykno, 'there human prey'.**_

" _Willow's Way?"_

 _**Yea! That's the one!"**_

 _You want to be called Willow?_

 _**Actually yea! It's cool, mysterious and totally badass.**_

 _Mysterious to who?_

 _**...**_

…

 _**early grave, bitch-**_

 _Alright fine, Willow it is._

Aurum frowned as he rinsed his left side.

 _This whole time you wanted me to name you and you ended up picking your own name._

 _**Nah fam,** Willow said. **We picked my name.**_

 _Uh-huh._ Aurum grunted rinsing off his tail.

… _..._

 **So Originally this chapter was supposed to be longer. Honestly this chapter was supposed to come out on the fourth of July. I have been extremely busy. Between applying for colleges, senior project, and other work, I am sorry I haven't been able to put out more.**

 **But thankfully it is Christmas Break, so ykno, expect the 2nd half of this chapter later on this week.**

 **So I am honestly surprised and overjoyed at how many people are following this story. I really enjoy lycan stories, and I hope that I do justice to myth while putting my own spin on it.**

 **If you guys want to put in your two cents on the story leave a review. Or if you want a class of Lycan, your own OC and semblances are appreciated.**

 **Thank you all for your support, I'll see you in the next chapter. "**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello Little Earthers, YautjaOfEarth is back with the second half of this chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed Lycan Sheera. She is fun to write because she is like my older sister, and I honestly picture her to look like Sofia Vergara. SMOKIN. I like to think that Tai Yang and her will have the same style of parenting: fun but serious sometimes. I for one found it hilarious that Yang was arguing with him, and they straight up started roasting each other.**

 **That is literally my family.**

 **So I intended to go more indepth into the relationships that Aurum and Sheera have, via flashbacks. Probably not this chapter, but I do want there to be more to offer from the story. The backstory about Kronos and the WhiteFang will certainly be more interesting know that we know that Blake's father was a White Fang leader. Also I'd like to go in depth for a lot of stuff, Aurum's time with Velvet and Sun in Vacuo, how he picks his weapons, and Lycan interaction before the story.**

 **I also intend to write translations for Faunician Language at the beginning or the end Honestly I think that Faunician sounds a little Turkish, and taking elements from Native American languages and the fictional language of Far Cry Primal, and will implement other cultural words like how Aurum will refer to Sheera as "Ista" which is the Mohawk word for mother. I like the whole idea of the Faunus having their own language, it will put an interesting spin on the story.**

 **Also while Babosa in spanish means "retard" I have repurposed it so say "my cub, or little one" in Faunician. Just wanted to make that clear.**

 **I want this to be a good story, I haven't seen a story that involves Signal yet.**

 **Once again I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and I appreciate your support.**

 **Lets do this.**

… **..**

"So I had just finished taking on about 50 of these assholes," Qrow continued his story as his sipped from his newly purchased coffee. Well if you could even call it coffee after all the booze he had just poured in.

"Mhmm." Ruby replied as they walked the sidewalk to the tram station. She was barely paying attention as he regaled her with the tale of his adventure. She was trying to listen truly, but her mind was just somewhere else at the moment.

"So I'm covered in Beowulf guts and blood, while I'm leaking like a stuck pig, and I barely make it back to the village,"

Ruby took a sip from her coffee cup and sighed. It had been two days and Aurum still hadn't come to school. And what was worst it was her fault. Sheera kept telling her that these things took time, that he would be back in school soon enough, that she should just apologize, and try to make the most of it.

She was only trying to help, but still I mean what do you say in a situation like that?

She didn't know what to do.

"When I pushed my way into the inn I was caught by surprise."

Ruby was pulled from her thoughts, stopped walking and looked at her uncle.

Her eyes widened when he continued.

"I was struck down." He said weakly as if wounded. He dramatically closed his eyes and grit his teeth, complete with a dramatically placed fist to his face. She gave him her full and undivided attention. We're there Grimm in the village? Did he get hurt? Was he ok?

He cracked one eye open to make sure she was watching him before his mouth cracked a grin.

"By the sweater puppies on the innkeeper!" He exclaimed proudly as he had gotten the intended rise he wanted out of his niece.

One thing he hadn't accounted for was how close they were walking next to each other. As strong as he was, her uncle was, Qrow had no time to react when she punched him in the ribs. She shrieked what Yang always shrieked at the end of these stories: "Pig!"

"Owww! Hey!" Qrow winced, laughing as he clutched his newly bruised ribs. "Take it easy kiddo."

Ruby didn't respond, she punched him partly because Yang usually criticized him for jokes like those, but she wasn't here so it seemed right. The other part because she was in a crisis here and he was cracking jokes. The other part of her wanted to know how big he was talking, but she felt her ears redden when she thought like that again, under her headphones so she didn't say anything.

Qrow took her silence as a surprise, but he had a pretty good idea of what held her mind.

"Still worried about him?"

"He got hurt because of me…" she sighed again.

"...accidents happen."

"But he doesn't see it as an accident."

"Make sure he knows that it was one."

They silently walked for a moment before Qrow put a hand round her waist.

"We should move faster."

She was unable to argue as his arm was already around her waist ushering her quickly forward behind the stall of a bus stop kiosk with a large puddle in front of it. As soon as they got behind it a large truck sped down the street and splashed all the patrons in the kiosk, earning many aggravated words towards the truck and complaints toward their wet clothing.

Ruby stared dumbfounded at the luck they just had, a few more seconds and they would have been soaked. She snapped her head toward her uncle, who looked away and cleared his throat as if nothing happened.

"I like coffee in my rum as much as the next guy," he sipped, "but I draw the line at street water."

Ruby stared at the soaking wet patrons before being ushered on by her uncle.

"Don't you mean rum in your coffee?"

"What did I say?" He asked absentmindedly currently watching in every direction, as if he was now looking for something.

Ruby opened her mouth to say something then closed it again. Knowing Qrow he'd probably give her another run around. Instead she needed to focus on the problem at hand.

"Look people get over things kiddo. It may take a while but I think he'll come around. Remember what ya did to my flask?"

Ruby pulled her hood over her head in embarrassment.

"You tried to not talk to me for a week."

"Yea, that was hard," he chuckled, "you forget things when you have to much fun."

"You mean when your blackout drunk," she quoted TaiYang.

"What did I say?" He asked earning another eye roll.

"The point is that he can't hold something against you for too long. Take it from me kiddo, grudges take too much energy if you actively think about them. You work yourself up into a tizzy just thinking about it, then if you haven't already pissed the day away, you're too tired to do anything." Qrow told his niece before taking another swig of his drink which had quickly become alcohol with a little coffee in it.

Ruby thought about his words, he did have a point. She would be seeing Aurum a lot around the school, especially since they had the same classes. Deep down he remembered her, she knew it. She knew he couldn't stay mad, hopefully. She really wanted him to forgive her, but of all she wanted her best friend back.

Qrow, despite his alcoholic tendencies, was a great motivational speaker.

"I guess you're right. A little time, some apologies and a little bit of luck, and I can do this." She declared puffing out her chest as she renewed her stride with confidence.

She had barely anytime to do anything before her uncle snatched her by the hood of her cloak and yanked her into his chest. A loud "LOOKOUT!" Could be heard from above the two. A fraction of a second later a flower pot shot down past her field of vision and shattered into pavement. Uncle and niece looked up to see a old man in a nightcap about three stories up in one of the many houses lining the edges of the streets.

"MY WORD! TERRIBLY SORRY!" He bawled professing his apologies to Ruby. Qrow tipped his cup to the geezer assuring him they were fine.

"Knew I felt it coming on," Qrow muttered quietly as he ushered her over the shattered pot, "just didn't know where…"

"Wow!" Ruby exhaled, "that could have ended badly huh?" A grunt from her uncle was all she got in response as they boarded the tram, many of the patrons surprised and a little disappointed she hadn't slammed into the safety mats today.

"Guess you could say you're my good luck charm huh?" She grinned at her uncle.

Qrow awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, and gave a halfhearted chuckle. "Heh heh, yea, sure. Luck…"

…

"Take your stance." Sheera told the hologram.

A young girl with a rapier squared her feet and pointed her toe outwards. Sheera watched with her cane held like a sword behind her back.

"Advance!" Sheera barked at the hologram.

The girl took a breath and leapt in a dash, thrusting her rapier outward, as if striking a imaginary target.

Sheera liked these types of days. It was a good day outside, she had a full belly, her leg wasn't bothering her yet, and in just… 5 more minutes she would be paid handsomely for her services.

Admittedly she didn't want to teach the daughter of some fat cat, how to use a sword. The rapier was common in Atlas, even a sporting event called fence or something like that but it wasn't her style at all. The girl wanted her to teach her because she was the first woman who was human, she had seen with skills in swordsmanship. If only she knew.

She had even tried to discourage the girl's father about her, saying it wasn't right for a girl of obvious… nobility to learn a violent skill. But she was persistent, and when that didn't work she tried to discourage her father with lien, her price for each lesson alone would've surely discouraged him. She told him it was steep due to her 3 cubs (she caught herself and said children in the discussion) she had to feed, somewhat of a truth, the majority of the truth was she straight up didn't want to teach some prissy uptight girl.

But when her father didn't bat an eye at her price she finally gave in, after all she did have 3 cubs to feed, medicine to buy for her son ,plus lien was lien, while she was paid well as a huntress freelancer, it was nice to treat herself and her son a little and a lot of his medication sapped those funds.

It wasn't that she did not grow on her eventually, it was that she was so… adulty. She was a good student but for the life of her it seemed she hadn't had a day to do something truly fun. Like her parents never truly allowed her to be a child. It bothered her when she mentioned that her lessons were one the high points of the months and even more so when she was able to take lessons weekly.

"I tell you, time and time again you keep your head up!"

"But Ms. Caine you don't-"

" _Ai ya da da!_ " She shushed the girl. "Don't worry about what I do! You do not have the same weapon, nor the same style."

The girl smoothed her dress, and stood straight with her rapier to her side. She looked ahead as if addressing someone military.

"Apologizes, Ms. Caine."

"Uggh." Sheera grunted under her breath. She hated when she did that. Uptight wasn't exactly her style, in teaching or in parenting, hell even life for that matter. It seemed like the girl hadn't rebelled a day in her life. She wasn't fond of people this uptight. They couldn't take a joke, or open their minds to new possibilities.

Plus these types of humans always tried to tell her how to raise her cub. For their information, he was allowed to call her by her name. It was a sign of respect in her culture, not many could do it unless given permission and she gave her cub the right when he had earned it. While many faunus when given the privledge referred to their parents by name in adulthood, his bravery at such a young age had earned him such a right for what he did for her.

She joked with him because she was also his friend. Unlike some humans, save for Tai, she could balance on the line between friend and parent. Not to mention that at least she knew how to handle problems, and her son knew when she made the face, the joke was over.

She hated it when they tried to tell her that the way she parented was wrong. She and Taiyang were new at being parents, but you could bet he was as tired of the judgement as she was.

Prim and proper, wasn't really her thing. For the love of the Maker and the god of darkness, do something irresponsible. She adjusted her bandana before addressing her student.

"You wield a rapier, while speed is a factor, precision is even more so. Keep your head up so you can visualize your environment and spot your targets, and your guard up so you can wait till the right moment to strike."

As the girl used a handkerchief handed to her from someone out of holorange to wipe the sweat from her brow, underneath her bandana, Sheera's ears picked up the soft pads and wheezing of her son making his way down the stairs.

"Ahh babosa how are y-eeeeesh!" Her greeting fell short as she scrunched up her face, as a shirtless Aurum came down the stairs. The bruise on his ribs was reddish purple, a disgusting color for flesh. His eye was black and swollen, and his lip had a split in the corner.

He rolled his good eye with a hoarse grunt, and walked into the living room. She would have to take a look at that after this.

"Ms. Caine?"

She was actually glad he left into the den, she would never hear the end of this girl guting her name from him.

She faced her student.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Was...that your son?" The girl said. Thankfully Aurum was out of holorange, otherwise questions would be raised as to why he had a tail amongst other things, and the whole thing blown.

"J'es. He is a little scraped up from his entrance exam."

"With all due respect, that didn't sound like a little scraped up."

"Ehh, he's… a little bruised. I'm going to patch him up after this. So now that we are finished warming up we will be practicing-"

"Um… Unfortunately, I have to leave early today Ms. Caine."

"Oh?"

"Father is going to make an announcement and he wants the family present for the press." she said as she crossed her arms. Sheera had had many conversations with the girl in between lessons, (sometimes she would call Sheera abruptly to vent) and had learned that not only did her sister leave for the army, her brother was only someone she could handle in "small doses" and her mother was usually on the business end of a bottle. And she wasn't a fun drunk like Qrow.

"Ahh…"

"You'll still be paid in full." girl quickly added.

It was sad really to think that she needed lien to keep friends and mentors close.

"Bah," the tigress said to the holographic girl. "Don't worry about that payment, just make sure you remember what I taught you." Well, she worried a little about the payment, but ykno whatever made her feel comfortable about the situation.

The girl stood at attention and brandished her sword. Reciting her mantra as she performed the movements.

"Head up. Shoulders back. Left foot forward-"

"At ta ta!" Sheera smiled "not that foreward."

"Ah of course," the girl said correcting her footwork. "Steady my breathing and wait for the right moment to strike!"

She lunged and thrusted her blade piercing the air with a ring.

" _Very good_." Her mentor said in a language she didn't understand. It made her smile nonetheless.

"Thank you Ms. Caine. I just finished Kline I suppose we should go now before he sends for us." She said to someone off screen before turning off her hologram.

Sheera finally relaxed her shoulders with a sigh. She actually was feeling pretty lazy today. She shrugged as she began to strip off her clothing piece by piece. She could've gone either way about her students training today. Today was a good day, her leg wasn't bothering her, and she would be receiving a check in the mail for a large sum of lien and wasn't even an hour into her student's training.

As she stepped out of her yoga pants, and dropped her underwear on the ground, she stretched her naked body earning several pops and cracks along her spine.

While many lycans saw shifting as a burden of the "curse" they bore, some liked to remain in their true forms, and others simply didn't know how to transform outside of the forced bloodmoon shifts, but Sheera found a balance between them.

She liked to shift because of where they lived, it helped her hunt more efficiently, and she could play more with her cub and dogs. But the main reason was that she didn't need her cane when she shifted.

She had become an expert at shifting, she concentrated, her muscles bulged as her body stretched. Her head shot down towards her shaking hands. Her fingernails retracted under her cuticles as her long, sharp, white talons, took the place of them. Her palms and fingerpads hardened into thick leather pads. Black and orange hair slowly sprouted from every inch of her body. Below, her feet and legs began to stretch and twist. Her muscles started to gain mass and her stripes grew to accommodate her body. She shuddered and fell to her stomach as the transformation overwhelmed her. It was always a rush after blood moons. She gritted teeth as her fangs elongated along with the rest of her teeth. But it didn't feel so bad this time. She was always expecting it to feel bad. Even as the change progressed through what Sheera remembered as the most excruciating phases - the repositioning of her bones and the extension of her face to form her muzzle - but now the pain never exceeded that of a very uncomfortable stretch. It was proceeding more rapidly as well. She always loved the relief it brought her every time. How easy the shift was especially after the blood moons. As exhilarating as their family secret was, she was glad that her cub did not inherit the blood. While many could see it as a gift or blessing, it was never forgotten that it was also a burden and a curse.

One her son would never have to endure.

Her black hair on her head grew out into the long, flowing black mane. Her chest heaved up and down as she drew in the morning air, gasping like a fish out of water, her eyes locked shut, a strained look on her predatory face. A final wave of heat and pressure washed over her. Sheera shook violently and let out an excited roar heralding her transition from tiger faunus to tigress. 

Sheera shook out her mane and stretched again, as she put weight on her leg. She gave a fanged grin to her reflection in the mirror, and tested putting weight on her leg, letting out a sigh of relief as she didn't feel the biting pain in her thigh.

Today was a good day.

Making her way to the kitchen pantry she retrieved the medical supplies from the cupboard and went through the dining room. Sheera paused briefly, examining the carnage of her sanbar breakfast a few days ago. The plastic wrap would help during the clean up, blood splatter had turned the wrap from clear to a red opaque. Little chunks of flesh were scattered across the wrap, a few minor bones, and a hoof and ankle remained, alongside the bloody hollowed out head, that had been smashed and the contents of the skull cavity consumed.

Sheera licked her muzzle, still tasting the sanbar brain, a absolutely delightful Faunician delicacy. Sanbar tasted amazing either cooked, or raw (from experience) but the brain was always eaten untouched.

She was about to make her way out to the dining room, before she noticed a forlorn deer femur on the ground. She picked up to bloody bone and popped the joint section into her maw, sucking it like a giant bloody lollipop, savoring the flavor as she padded to the den.

Today was a really good day.

…..

Aurum wheezed out a pained sigh as he flipped through the channels of the giant tv. He didn't really feel like watching the rerun of X-ray and Vav, and Red vs Blue was out for the summer. He watched with brief interest as several men in helmets and padding lined up and charged at each other, trying to protect a ball wrapped in pig skin. Another sport one of the kingdoms (Minstral, this time, he was certain) was trying to get the rest of the world addicted too.

 _Pfft._ He thought. _Football will never catch on. Especially when Vacuo already got the go ahead to expand Grifball globally._

He flipped and flipped, until he came acrossed a news story on a tv network. FET - Faunican Entertainment Television, as doing a program on Ota Benga. Aurum's ears drooped and he frowned and sighed harder as it was the boys memorial service. They had all been rooting for Ota Benga. Him more than anyone.

There was a picture of the guy, around 23 if not younger. He had long brown hair, and zebra stripes lined his arms as he happily showed off a bicep to the cameraman in a lacrosse jersey. His forehead had two giraffe horns peak through his rich brown hair. His eyes, though full of life, were a sickly purplish green. With green near the pupil and purple on the outer.

"He was going to be a engineer," sniffled Tanya Benga to the interviewer tears streaming down zebra faunus' cheeks. He hated that look, because he knew that Sheera would have that same look. The look of a mother losing her child. It was only a matter of time.

"He was so beautiful." Gobbi Benga sighed, the giraffe faunus struggling not to cry to the cameramen. "He was so full of wonder, the smartest kid in his class. Friend to everyone. But I suppose the gods wanted him to come home." He held his wife as she sobbed into his lapel. "We love you Ota."

Aurum sighed as he looked on. Ota Benga. There were many older hybrid faunus, but it seemed that Ota was one who mattered due to his intellect. Many hybrids you would find out on the street, however some families would keep them and try to give them medical treatment.

Faunus children were normally born with the characteristics of one parent. Hybrids were born mixed with both. The problem with hybrids was that there were too many health problems, and too many mental problems. Some had mental problems like autism, and other problems were easily treatable, other things health related like defects and low immunity to illness were not as easy, if treatable at all. It came down to how if much people really cared, because hybrids died easily and unexpectedly, which lead to many not wanting to be involved or attached for if they fell, they felt they would have to be responsible.

 _Maybe your a sign that my time is coming. I always knew I'd go nuts._

He thought at Willow.

** _doubt it**_

 _Why's that?_

 _** cause I'm the best thing that has happened to us yet**_

Aurum rolled his eye. He really shouldn't have let Sun rub off on him so much.

He had had several problems in the past with his health. His mother had ran herself ragged in Vacuo in missions on several occasions to provide lien for medicines - even after her injury - and examinations from doctors just to have them tell them the same thing. That they didn't know what was going on yet, and they would do more tests.

If there were two things he hated, it was doctors because they had became a waste of time, and being a burden to people, especially his brother and mother.

Well if he hoped he wouldnt be much of a burden for much longer. Sheera had gotten that job training that rich girl and Garrett sent along most of whatever he earned freelancing around the world. But medicine itself was so damn expensive. Either on the of chance he got better, hurrah. If not well at least there would be no more running ragged.

It seemed dreary to be thinking of his mortality at such a young age, but he had already made his peace with the idea of death. Seven years ago in that alley. However he wasn't about to leave without achieving his goal - making a mark on the world. He wasn't going to be another nameless hybrid, young or old, dead in the gutter. He'd seen enough of them in the hood he lived in back in Vacuo.

Staring into his reflection in one of the glass panes, his cerulean blue and gold eyes were his curse. They alienated him unless he could prove he wasn't about to drop dead right then and there. The humans were stupid, they just saw a faunus with pretty eyes. They knew nothing of this curse, this death sentence, but the faunus knew better.

Well the gods weren't going to take him now, the god of darkness, hell Oum the Maker himself would have to wait a little longer. He wasn't going to stop now. He refused to go quietly into the night.

He was pulled from his musing when he heard the audible click of heavy claws on stones, and a loud wet smack.

" **Ai, No! Why j'you watch this?"** Sheera scolded moving quickly for the remote in his hand.

The tiger woman snatched the remote, her makeshift lollipop clattering on the floor as she fumbled with her very large paw like hands, finally changing the tv to the nature channel and tossed the device to the opposite couch.

*was just flipping* he signed to her.

He actually liked this channel. The nature channel was always popular because of the Grimm, it was so hard to learn more about what all was out there. Nature documentors were paid kings ransoms for their programs, as we're the huntsmen that watched their backs out in the deep wilderness. Half of them never make it back, but those who do were instant celebrities. Nature documentaries and their bodyguards were basically rockstars. High risk but very high reward.

** those guys get more pussy than a sex addict** Willow muttered. **lucky fucks**

" **Well stop looking at that shit**." Sheera said before sitting down next to her cub. She had known him- shit she was the one who pumped him out- and she knew exactly what her son was thinking, questioning his own morality, and she had told him before the only cause of death he would have would be from old age. She gave a smile before pressing her large forehead to his. Her seemingly glowing pupils, separated by the now black whites of her eyes made contact with his, and she gently held the back of his head to make sure he was paying attention.

" **I already told you. You are going to outlive me, mm**?"

He hoarsely scoffed at that before her grip tightened slightly so he refocused on her eyes. Her small smile became a fanged grin. Any other man would have probably wet themselves in fear.

" **If you don't, I'll kill you**."

At this he snorted as she licked his face and kissed his cheek.

*i will keep that in mind* he smirked

" _ **You'd better**_ **. I won't be responsible because you forgot."** She said as she dug around the medkit.

The first thing Sheera decided to make light of the new change in scenery for them. It had been so long since they had been in Vale. She had read up on all the new changes and things that were happening in and around Patch, but according to Taiyang, many things that were there when her cub was younger still remained. It was a nice change of pace from trash filled alleys and sweltering heat waves.

" **So I hear that Vale has gotten a Bazaar** ," she said thoughtfully as she cleaned the dried blood from his lip. Faunician markets were common in Vacuo. They were outside, populated by vendors and full of life. She remembered Aurum loved to hang out with Sun and Velvet in the Bazaar near their home. She also remembered having to help Velvet bail the two _idiots_ out of any shenanigans they got it too. Which was on a regular basis since they built off of each other's ideas.

She only received a grunt as he flinched from the cotton swab. The two sat in a comfortable silence. As comfortable as you could get with a near 8 foot anthropomorphic tiger woman wielding medical supplies too tiny for her hands on her son.

" **There is also an auto shop I would like you to check out when you are well. The owner was ...a friend of mine."** She said. Back in Vacuo her cub became interested in cars and murdercycles, and therefore began to assist Sun's grandmother in her repair shop. She had little to no knowledge about vehicle maintenance, Taiyang was usually the mechanic on these matters. Luckily her cub was a quick study. He had became a very skilled _grease monkey_ , as Sun's Grandmother called him. As for the friend of hers, many White Fang followers left when she did, and many like her went into hiding for the longest time, and made lives for themselves.

*good to work in a shop again* he signed to her, wincing as she wrapped a new bandage round his swollen eye. He had to grow up a little faster than she had wanted. It was four of them in Vacuo, Sun, His grandmother, Herself, and her cub all lived in the old woman's' tiny house in one of the hoods of Vacuo. Unfortunately the two boys had to help pay bills, but fortunately She already had a business.

"Where would we be without the _grease monkey?_ " She asked making him crack a grin.

The comfortable silence continued as the nature channel captured a red,orange and black large peacock like bird with very long tail feathers fighting a hyena. The narrator discussed the advantages of the over grown chicken that was revealed to be a Phoenix against the hyena. She watched with interest as the Phoenix displayed its feathers like a beautiful but oddly colored peacock. The narrator went into great detail how it's back talons on its feet hid a poison that if given a high enough of a dosage could give the assailant a painful death with the sensation of burning on the sun.

Sun. He'd probably have some stupid comment about how he was as hot as the actual sun, or how that poison couldn't affect someone as hot as the sun. It wasn't even a week and he was already feeling homesick. Well… he was home… but… whatever he missed his friends. Velvet had moved here to attend Beacon which made him ecstatic but it wouldn't be the same without the dynamic duo together.

*Ista* he signed formally, making his mother halt the wrapping of his side and stare at him. Any lesser man, hell any Lycan would immediately drop their gaze when met with the eyes of his mother, especially on her territory but while they were piercing to others, they offered a comfort to him, a softness that reassured him she was there.

*are the communication towers to Vacuo still online?*

….

"H...lo? He..o? Can you hear me?" Velvet said over the Scroll.

Aurum grinned from ears to ears, it was great to see his friend over video chat. Even better to hear her voice. He couldn't help but bounce in his seat on the couch, upsetting Ronin who had his head on his thigh, ecstatically until his side warned him to stop when he saw the rabbit Faunus.

She had her hair trail down her back and was wearing a small brown jacket with her insignia on the right chest. Her brown eyes lit up when he came into view and her long rabbit ears immediately shot straight up with glee. From what he saw she was in a simple bedroom.

"Hello Ari! How are you!" She happily exclaimed.

He waved at her as fast as his hand would shake. It was so good to see a familiar face. He had been cooped up in the house for too long.

It wasn't until Velvet truly got a look at him did one of her ears droop. "Oh no! What happened!? Aurum are you ok?"

Velvet Scarlatina, known by Sun as "the mom friend", began to fumble around her screen as if to look for something that would help him. He had to order his mastiff to bark to get her attention.

*im fine. Do not worry.* he quickly signed to make her stop fidgeting like a mother hen. She finally slowed her movements when she read his hands.

"That's a long shot from fine!" She exclaimed, her ears shooting straight up. "How did this happen?! I demand to know now!"

*you will* he promised as he tapped another contact to video chat along side of her image. The username 'SunnyD' appeared above an empty profile circle.

"Oh boy," Velvet sighed with a smile. "Ykno your not going to hear the end of this right?"

The injured tiger shrugged as he stroked Ronin's head. Might as well get it out of the way while he could. In hindsight he should have probably taken into account the different times of day given the time period- ykno what he wasn't going to think about it. He needed to vent and who better than these two.

After a few minutes of waiting, and answering a few smaller questions Velvet had to ask with brief hand signs, because he did _not_ feel like signing the entire story a second time, SunnyD finally picked up the scroll.

" _What's up bitches!"_ The monkey faunus whooped in faunician.

"Hey V!" Sun greeted at Velvet first. "How's life in… well the other V? Not as fun as Vacuo huh?"

"I wouldn't know, I just got here." The rabbit admitted cheerfully.

"Ronin! How's it going buddy?" Sun called to the mastiff who responded with a series of barks and yips as Aurum had to lift the screen out of the dogs way, lest his try to lick it again.

Sun Wukong, his best friend, his partner in crime, his figga. It was so good to see his face again, he wondered why he was hating on him a few minutes ag-

"Aww pauk!" The monkey said when he saw Aurum, throwing his arms in the air and letting them slap against his legs. "You ain't been without me for five minutes and somebody went and beat the shit out of you! GRANDMA! AURUM GOT THE SHIT KICKED OUT OF HIM!"

Oh yea, that was why.

When Sun got no response, he turned back to the screen.

"So I take it entrance exams went well huh?"

"Why must you do this Sun, don't torture him." Velvet said tiredly.

"I'm not torturing him V-"

*yes you are*

"Shut up," the monkey laughed at the grinning tiger, " I'm just saying that like plants need sunlight, you two need Sun." He said boastfully.

The silence between Aurum and Velvet, staring at the monkey Faunus was their main defense against jabs like these. And their most effective. Be it girls or friends, the one thing Sun couldn't handle well was awkward silences.

They could visually see the relief on his face when Velvet finally blinked and then spoke up.

"So how did your entrance exam go?"

"Oh my gods," Sun sighed in both relief and excitement.

Aurum and Velvet grew ingrossed into Sun's tale of his entrance exam, fighting, climbing, and at some point flirting his way to the end. Even meeting his new partner.

Velvet began to laugh as Sun grew somewhat jealous of his partner. Aurum managed some wheezes as the monkey tried to protest.

"-And he wears a freaking vest with buttons and shit. I mean why?"

*same reason for your chest?* Aurum inquired, as Sun had been shirtless for the entire conversation. He was too but he had a reason.

"Hey Tony how are those bruises?" Sun scoffed. "Are they grrrrr-eat?"

"That was in bad taste Sun," Velvet said as Aurum rolled his eye and gave him the finger.

"Trust me you guys, this human is totally cramping my style."

"I'm sure he'll grow on you."

"He freaked out over a puddle of WATER. The clickers name is Poseidon or something for the Makers sake. Yea I don't see that happening." Sun said crossing his arms and looking away.

"Fine, be that way." Velvet said to the pouting monkey finally getting back on her track.

"Ari," she called to the tiger-hybrid, " I'm still waiting on an explanation for this." She said in a motherly tone, gesturing to his body and face.

"Yea man, something that fucked you up this badly is worth hearing." Sun said. He took it as a compliment because Aurum began his combat training long before Sun, therefore though he wouldn't admit it directly, Aurum was the better fighter.

Aurum began his tale, how everything was going smooth, how he had concealed his tail and ears carefully, how he fought the robots, and finally, that girl. The one in red. He vented all his frustration to his friends, his fingers and hands moving only so fast to keep up with his train of thought.

Velvet and Sun's eyes both followed his movements in tandem, both quietly reading as he threw his signs this way and that, forcing Ronin to readjust his head every few seconds or his thigh would hit him in the lower jaw. He signed to them how it was her fault he was like this, how if it wasn't for her he would be able to talk to them, how he wouldn't have to worry about humans this year, all that pissed away by this girl.

He disliked her, he detested her, she made him so angry to think about her, but even in his mind he couldn't bring himself to say the h word. To hate her. And it infuriated him even more because he couldn't understand why.

When he finally finished his tale Velvet and Sun were quiet for several moments as he caught his breath and gripped his side.

Finally he told them his worst problem : thanks to that girl he was stuck, he would be an outcast again. He was already an outcast amongst his own people, but now there was no chance of him fitting in anywhere.

"Oh Ari," Velvet said full of sorrow for her friend.

"Who cares?" Sun growled. He had been uncharacteristically quiet during the entirety of Aurum's story and it was a shock to both the hybrid and the rabbit that he spoke up finally.

"What?" Velvet snapped at him. "You had better be-"

"You heard me! Who the fuck cares what they think?!" Sun snapped back. He turned to Aurum, his eyes looked as if they were glowing a bright yellow, and his Hair and tail seemed to shine brighter on the camera.

"Why do you care what any of those hairless apes think? You shouldn't! That's not my best friend!" He snarled at the hybrid.

Aurum blinked. He had seen Sun mad on several occasions but not like this. But what did he know, he could never understand what he was going through.

*easy for to-"

"SHUT UP!" Sun roared, his eyes blazing yellow and his hair flashed almost white.

"Dude are you fucking kidding me? What have you done with the Aurum I knew?"

"Sun what are you going on about?" Velvet said somewhat hurt at how he was behaving.

"You heard him Velvet! He sounds like he's already given up and the gods damn year ain't even started!"

Aurum took his words to heart, but what could he do? He was in no position to hide his extremities, let alone thoroughly protect himself should -excuse him- when the need arose.

"Don't give me that!" Sun snapped at him. "When you were back here and the figgas over here gave you flack did you back down? Hell no, we beat the shit out of those guys, and you proved you weren't a punk. I'm sick of you insisting on hiding what makes you, you from those clickers. It's never worked so do me a favor and STOP TRYING!" Sun angrily said.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his hair and tail seemed to loose the light it previously had. Must be the static of the video feed again.

Velvet was about to speak on be half of Aurum as she saw the hurt look on his face, but when Sun spoke again she decided against it.

"Look Aurum. I love you man. I love you like a brother. And you of all people know that it wasn't always like that. I understand that if you want to fit in you have to try harder than the rest of us, but don't try to be something your not man. Not everyone Faunus or human will like you right away, because they haven't got to know the dude V and I know. So if they can't see that **make them**. And why should you care who you try to group with, your a leader not a follower, from experience, not to mention one of the best fighters I've seen behind me."

*behind you?*

"Yes behind me," he said looking utterly pleased with himself.

*i learned more than you have*

"Well than remains to be seen,"

*no it hasn't*

"Well I don't know about that,"

*years after me*

"Dude! Trying to give you a pep talk here! Damn!" Sun whined to the grinning hybrid over Velvet's giggling. He only stopped pouring when Aurum signed the words *sorry your greatness* before continuing.

"Look bro, the past is the past, maybe the girl in red did it on purpose, so what?"

When he frowned he was chastised by the monkey.

"Lemme finish! So maybe she did maybe she didn't, what's done is done. So instead, make them know the real you, shove yourself down their gods damned throats!"

"*phrasing*" The rabbit a the hybrid said and signed at the same time.

"SHUT UP!" He shrieked trying not to pout again.

"Look just because someone sees you as a hybrid, or just a Faunus, they don't know you. Make them know the real you, and if they still don't like what they see? _Pauk_ em!" The monkey said definitively.

"Sun's right Aurum," Velvet said. " don't worry about those humans, you have people here who already care about you. By the way, haven't forgot my promise to hang out with you," she remarked smiling sweetly.

"If you ever need to talk, it'll be just like old times in Vacuo. And don't think I won't sense of something is wrong Aurum, the rabbit will hunt down the tiger if she has too, I. Will. Find. You."

"Yea, and when you don't need therapy from a rabbit, the real fun can begin, guess who just got a PlayBox360?!"

"Oh! we can all play Duty of the Call! What's your username?!"

Then Aurum began to smile, to himself more than anyone else. Here were two pure blooded Faunus, who didn't have to worry about any of his problems. Yet here they were focusing their best efforts on him; the hybrid. The reject. The freak. The abomi-some sort of human word. They had been the first outside of his family that bothered with him. That put up with him. That cared about him.

For the longest time, every skill that he had acquired was to fit in, to be better, to be acknowledged by people who he would probably never see again. But the best thing he could ask for where people he cared about telling him he should just be himself.

*ok* he signed, the movement of his arms causing the the monkey and rabbit to stop their conversation to read his fingers.

*your right* he continued making Velvet smile brighter, and Sun look more smug because he was right.

*i am done with pretending. I will be myself.*

"Now you're talking!" Sun whooped, "All thanks to me!"

Velvet gave a wavering hand off of that comment before she spoke up.

"Don't worry about a thing Ari! I can always come over to that school and teach them a thing or too."

"Hey! Don't leave me out! A hop and a skip on a boat and we will conquer that school the three of us!"

*totally* the hybrid grinned.

"So… any word on the girl in red?" Sun asked.

"Sun!" Velvet hissed.

"What?! If she goes to that school, we gotta make sure that this doesn't happen again. Next time it could be worse, and what's worse than him looking black and white and-" Sun snorted, "red all over?"

Aurum flicked his white and black tail before making a rude gesture with his hand, causing Ronin to whimper.

"I know Ronin!" Sun huffed. "So rude."

"Anyway," Velvet continued, "so how are you going to deal with this?"

Aurum hadn't thought about it. He had been ruined by the girl. She would inevitably be his downfall due to that incident. She had injured him and thwarted his ability to conceal himself, let alone properly defend himself.

**Yet you can't say you hate her can you** the voice in his head said.

**why is that**

Aurum ignored the voice in his head, it's not that he didn't want to respond, but the words hit home for some reason.

He couldn't put his finger on it. He was furious, angry, smad. It just he hadn't been able to put a label on what his emotions were, and whenever he got to "hate" it just didn't seem right.

*Guess I'll just make it up as I go along* he decided finally to his friends, who exchanged looks because while Aurum was a good strategist and a known improviser it wasn't like him to fly this blind.

*who knows?* he continued with a reassuring smile. *she probably doesn't attend. Maybe I'll never see her again.*

…

 **What's up my glip glops!**

 **YautjaofEarth is back from the dead even though I never died so that awesome.**

 **I'm glad I have more time to work on Aurum and his story. I plan to incorporate more Lycan type scenarios later on in the story because let's face it, it's what you're here for right?**

 **So about the languages I promise I'll have them sorted out, but I thought it would be really interesting to use sign language as well in this story. This wasn't a run of the mil idea, this was gonna be a part of the story from the get-go. But I will certainly fill out a language guide or something for the next chapter, because I under stand how *sign language* and **Willow the voice inside Aurum's head** can be a little confusing.**

 **For a second let's talk about Willow. This was also a element from the get-go thing. Willow is not out to take over Aurum I promise, if anything he is a guardian angel of sorts because he is the last remaining pieces of Aurum's shattered psyche that can remember the past with Ruby and Yang in it. Shenanigans will ensue, it's gonna be great.**

 **This has been a really difficult chapter for me mainly because I just finished my senior year of high school and I hadn't had enough time to finish until now. Got a fucking piece of paper and everything. I sure as hell am glad it's summer time because I have more time to work on these stories.**

 **Honestly I have two more stories in the works right now, and it's been driving me crazy that I hadn't had enough time to work on them. Thankfully I wrote the ideas down.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, if you have any ideas about characters or semblances hell even lycan breeds that could be used in the story, don't hesitate to DM me, you may see your character as a teacher, a student, hell even an actual villain later on in the story.**

 **This isn't a raffle or anything, it's just laziness. Plain and simple.**

 **See you all in the next chapter**

 **YautjaofEarth out.**


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